George Maddox

Edmeston had recommended that Scott should have lessons in drawing from George Maddox, so in the last year of his four-year pupilage in 1830, he attended Maddox’s Drawing Schools in Furnival’s Inn, Holborn, which was about one mile from Edmeston’s office. Some of his extant studies of Greek architecture were probably made at Maddox’s, as one is inscribed as ‘Mr. Maddox’s method of describing the Ionic volute’. However, there seems to have been only one instance of him actually using the spiralling capital of the Ionic order in his subsequent career. He later admitted that if he was obliged to use Ionic, it ‘I own, would puzzle me!’ However, in copying the Orders he would have learnt skills of accurate draughtsmanship, methods of representing three dimensional forms in two dimensions and a good appreciation of the beauty and subtleties of classical architecture.

Scott’s reputation as a quick and accurate draughtsman who could produce captivating presentation drawings for his potential clients probably stems from the short time that he spent under Maddox. But it may be that it was his introduction to certain pupils was just as important for his future career. A galaxy of luminaries passed through the school, such was the reputation of Maddox. Future architects, Morton Peto (1809-89) ‘had just left’ when Scott went there, Decimus Burton (1800-81) ‘a little earlier’, and Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807-80) ‘occasionally attended’. Most of these men were probably older than Scott and certainly wealthier, but the teenager did meet Edwin Nash (1814-84), who was even younger than Scott and he ‘became my staunch friend’.