Abstract
S.P.A.B. (the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) was founded in 1877 under the direction of William Morris. Although there were several societies of archaelogists which were interested in protection of ancient monuments (e. g. Society of Antiquaries of London; founded in 1751), S.P.A.B. was the first society founded exclusively for the purpose of protecting ancient buildings. William Morris, the advocate of the Society, was personally an enthusiast for Gothic architecture. But as a chief member of the Society, he appreciated every style of old buildings (e. g. City Churches by Christopher Wren then threatened with demolition). In fact, the Society separated the action for protecting old buildings from the evaluation of architectural style of them. As the first step of this theory, they used an analogy with text critic of a literaly work. Then they began to evaluate old buildings as a historical evidence of a culture. Here we found the modern origin of conservation theory. At the same time, wide spread members of the Society from mediaevalists to modern anti-revivalists show paradoxically how strong and wide spread was the restoration theory of the Mid-Victorian Gothic. The formation of the conservation theory of S.P.A.B. was one of the most important sympton of the end of the Victorian Gothic.
