The Cotman Collection | 83

Cotmania. Vol. IV. 1929-30

Archive: SDK Sydney Decimus Kitson Archive
Reference Number: SDK/1/2/1/4
Page: 29 recto


  • Description

    Transcript of the toast to the city of Norwich that Kitson gave in capacity of Honorary Secretary of RIBA

    Transcript of the toast to the city of Norwich that Kitson gave in capacity of Honorary Secretary of RIBA. No context given about where or why he was toasting, but City Mayor and Sheriff were present.
    Comments on architecture, Norwich School of Art, history, and makes damning comparison of Yorkshire.

    Date:

  • Transcription

    After the loyal toasts, Mr. SYDNEY KITSON (Honorary Secretary RIBA), in proposing the toast of the City of Norwich, said: Nearly a hundred years ago a dinner was held in this hall in honour of St Blaize, the patron saint of the woolcombers. Speaking at this dinner, the Norwich artist, John Sell Cotman, described his native place as: "this fine old city, venerable in its various remains of antiquity, and beautifuln in its surrounding scenery; scarcely to be equalled in its quiet way by any city in the British Empire." To an appreciative stranger, speaking in this same hall nearly a hundred years later, it seems that Cotman's claim holds good today, and that the intervening years have but added to the interest and charm of Norwich.
    Your cathedral equals in architectural interest any cathedral in England; although some who have come from blameless drawing boards are surprised to read that the original architect of your cathedral was -untrue to type- a reformed rake. In the hands of your present Dean, however, its fabric is assured, for he is acknowledged to be an expert in ecclesiastical architecture. Your great Castle seems to have been planned with a prevision which is rare - even among architects- eight hundred years ahead, as a perfect setting for the Lord Mayor's reception last night. Your mediaeval guild-hall and the old churches, with their exquisite flint work, which meet one at every turn, are a delight to the eye. Your sober and sensible eighteenth century brick buildings have been described by Mr Stanley Wearing in his book on Georgian Architecture in Norwich. The great Roman Catholic church of Gilbert Scott the second - the gifted father of a still more gifted son- is one of the outstanding buildings of the nineteenth century. Your various housing schemes, which have been planned in recent years around this city of gardens, are among the best in the country. Small wonder, then, that in such a city something happened which happened nowhere else in the history of English art, and that a school of local painters arose to record the picturesqueness of the streets of Norwich, and the charm of the surrounding landscape. To many who visit the National Gallery, the Mousehold Heath of John Crome is one of the most sincere and most beautiful landscapes ever painted by an Englishman. Unfortunately, these Norwich artists did not meet with the recognition which their merits deserved, because during their lifetime, the staple trade of the city, of the woo[[d]]l [wool] industry, was transferred by the aid of Old King Coal to the West Riding of Yorkshire. No school of artists corresponding to the Norwich school has yet arisen in the heavy woolen district of Yorkshire, although Old King Coal and not Old Crome has painted its buildings and landscape with a uniform coating of soot.
    Owing to the enterprise and resourcefulness of its citizens, the trade of Norwich soon revived, and now your industries are as various as they are flourishing. They range from portable buildings to ladies' stockings. Nor must it ever be forgotten that Norwich is the headquarters of a club which has more lunching and dining members than anywhere in the world. Its president is your titled fellow-citizen, the Baron de Boeuf. It seems almost incomprehensible that his portrait has not been added to the gallery of portraits of Norwich worthies on these walls. Another portrait is missing - that of Mr Dormer, the type of those shrewd men of business who have made the name of Norwich famous in banking and insurance circles throughout the world. His portrait has already been drawn, to the delight of thousands of readers, by Mr R H Mottram, the secretary of the Norwich Society.
    My Lord Mayor, and - after witnessing that scene of superb animation at the regatta on the Norfolk Broads in the morning - I would say, my Lord Mayor and Commodore, and you, Mr Sheriff, may I, in coupling your names with the toast of "The City of Norwich,"end as I began, by quoting the words which have been spoken in the past in this historic hall? When, some 350 years ago, Queen Elizabeth visited Norwich, she was, as we are told, sumptuously entertained - though she could not have been more sumptuously entertained than we architects have been this week. During her visit she called to the mayor in this hall and said to him: "Master Mayor, I have laid up in my breast such good will towards your city, as that I shall never forget Norwich." My Lord Mayor and Mr. Sheriff, I wish to associate my colleagues and myself, whole-heartedly, with these words of the Virgin Queen.

Transcript of the toast to the city of Norwich that Kitson gave in capacity of Honorary Secretary of RIBA