 Petit's first book, Remarks on Church Architecture, appeared in 1841.A tour de force in two volumes, with over 300 illustrations from watercolours by Petit himself, it sought to gather multiple examples to demonstrate the extraordinary range of beauty in all historical architectural styles, from the continent as well as in Britain.The point being to counter the dogma of one ‘correct’ style set out in Pugin's Contrasts, which had appeared a few years earlier.