XX. Remarks on the architectural History of Westminster Hall: in a Letter from Sydney Smirke, Esq. F.S.A., to Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., F.R.S. Secretary

Extract

You are well aware that the great Hall at Westminster has been for some time past undergoing a complete repair and restoration under the direction of my brother, Sir Robert Smirke. A work of this nature, requiring at every step the closest observation and the most scrupulous care, is necessarily slow, and its progress was for a while suspended by the late destructive fire, from which this Hall was with difficulty preserved. In the execution of these repairs favourable opportunities present themselves of ascertaining the previous state of the building, and of verifying the changes which it is supposed to have undergone. To these interesting objects of inquiry neither my brother nor I have been indifferent, and it is at his suggestion that I have undertaken, as each part of the work is successively brought under examination, to note down and to submit to the Society of Antiquaries whatever may be thought worthy of being recorded in its Transactions.