Mr. J. L. Pearson's name has been already mentioned among the . . . group of contemporary architects, whose works have been conspicuous in the [Gothic] Revival, and perhaps there are none which illustrate so accurately as his own, both in domestic .and ecclesiastical architecture, its progress and the various influences to which it has been subject, from the days of Pugin down to the present time. Mr. Pearson, like many of his fellow'students, began his professional career with the fixed intention of adhering not only to the principles of Mediaeval art but to national characteristics of style. His early churches in Yorkshire and other parts of England, many of which were erected between 1840 and 1850, exhibit those characteristics in an eminent degree. Treberfydd House in South Wales, which he designed for Mr. Robert Raikes, is thoroughly English in its leading features and general com- position. The plain but well-proportioned mullioned windows, the modest gables, outlined by thin coping stones (the early Revivalists made them of clumsy thickness), the battlemented entrance porch and clustered chimney shafts, all indicate an attention to details then rarely given, and though the architect was at first limited to the alteration of an existing house, which must have considerably taxed his abilities, this accident led to a picturesque treatment of the design, which no artist would regret. — Charles L. Eastlake, A History of the Gothic Revival, pp. 302-3
Works
References
Eastlake, Charles L. A History of the Gothic Revival. London: Longmans, Green; N.Y. Scribner, Welford, 1972. Facing p. 261. [Copy in Brown University's Rockefeller Library]
Last modified 5 February 2008