The life and works of Sir Charles Barry

The Life and Works of Sir Charles Barry is by Rev. Alfred Barry, D.D., Principal of Cheltenham College, and was printed in London in 1867. The preface says that for narrative purposes he found abundant and trustworthy materials, and that his father's architectural life is written in outline in his own professional journals.

The sampled pages describe how Barry worked. He gave himself wholly to architecture and held time, labour and health cheap in its service. He worked out an important design largely for himself, in its scientific and financial as well as its artistic bearings, and when a design took hold of him the idea would come at first waking and he would rise to work at it, however early. Another passage describes changes to a large building's plan: the river line was not at right angles to the main approach through St. Stephen's Hall, so he set back the line of the embankment at the southern end and advanced it at the other end, near the bridge.