 Harrison spent the whole of his career in the northwest of England and , other than his houses in Scotland and his work in Oxford , his works were confined to Lancashire , Cheshire , Shropshire , Cumbria , Derbyshire , and North Wales . He was never a member of the Royal Academy or any other London @-@ based institution , and only a rare visitor to London once his practice was established . Nevertheless , Charles Cockerell ( later to become the president of the Royal Institute of British Architects ) said of him in 1828 that he was " undoubtedly the noblest genius in architecture we have had " . 
