Regarding his recollections of the early years of the government schools of design, which he asserts were largely founded due to the energy and will of the
Prince Consort. He remembers the words spoken to him by the minister responsible for them,
Sir John Shaw Lefevre, that the schools were training "designers for manufactuers".
He stayed at the Schools for only two years and resigned to devote more time to his work, also thinking that the job required more than he could give to it. His role as examiner over the next fifteen years enabled him to witness the collapse in standards. Now the schools are flooded with amateurs, there are hoards of workless artists and the profession of drawing master has been destroyed.
Twenty years ago 4,000 to 5,000 works would be submitted to the summer exhibition, the total is now nearer 12,000.