198 HISTORY OF A RCIIITECTUUE. Er-jK I.

jjropL'r proportions, soor. leaving notliing to be desired

;
but in England they were for a
l(nig time engrafied on Gothic plans and forms.
4:58. The %vork. of Andrew Borile has lieen before mentioned; huttlie earliest publiuHtion
in England relative to practical architecture was,
"
Tl'.e first and cliiefe Grounds of Arelii-
lectiire used in all tlie ancient and famous Monyments witii
a
fartlier and more ample
Discourse uppon the same than lia> hitherto been set forihe by any other. Hy Jolin Sliute.
paynter and archi ecte."
''
Printed by John INIarshe, fol., 1563." Tliis John Shute iiad
been sent by Dudley, Duke of Nortliumlnrl uid. to Tt:ily, probal)ly with the intention of
afterwards emplov ing him upon the works wliicl) he was projecting. His work, though
re|)ublished in 1579 pnd 15S4, is now so rare tliat only two copies are known to exist,
one of which is in the library of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and the otlier
in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. From tliis and tiiany other circumsiancfs, it
is easy to disjovtr that doinestio architecture under Elizabeth had assuiued a more
scientific cliaracter. Indeed, there is ample evidence that no building was now under-
taken without the previous arrangement of a digesttd and regulated plan
;
for early in
the reign of this sovereign the treatises of Lomazzo and many otliers ere translated
into English
;
and in the construction of the palatial houses of the aristocracy, the
architects had begun to act upon a system. The principal deviation from the plans of
the earlier Tudor houses was in the bay windows, parapets, and porticoes, whereof the two
latter were intensely carved with all the forins that the most fantastic and grotesipie
imagination could supply. The exteriors of these porticoes were covered with carved
entablatures, figures, and armorial bearings and devices. The galleries were loft)', wide,
and generally more than a hundred feet in length
;
and the staircases were spacious and
magnificent, often occupying a considerable portion of the mansion. Elizabeth herself does
not appear to have set, during the passion of the period for architecture, any example to
iter subjects. She might have thought her father had done sufficient in building palaces
;
but, however, be that as it may, she encouraged tlie nobles of her court in great expenditure
on their residences. With the exception of the royal gallery at Windsor, siie herself did
actually nothing
;
whilst on Kenilworth alone. Lord Leicester is supposed to have expended
no less a sum than 60,000/., an almost royal sum of inoney.
439. Before proceeding further, it becomes our duty here to notice a peculiar construction
which prevailed in the large manor houses of the provinces, and more especially in the
counties of Saloj), Chester, and Staflbrd, the memory of many whereof, though several are
still to be seen, is chiefly preserved in engravings
;

we allude to those of timber frame-

work in places where the supply of stone or brick, or both, was scanty. The carved
pendants, and the barge-boards of the roofs and gables, which had, however, made their
appearance at a rather earlier jieriod, were executed in oak or chesnut with much beauty
of design, and often with a singularly pleasing effect. The timbered style reached its
zenith in the reign of Elizabeth, and is thus illustrated in Harrison's description of
England :
"
Of the curiousnesse of these piles I speake not, sith our workmen are grown
generallie to such an excellence of devise in the frames now made, that they farre jiasse the
finest of the olde." And, again : "It is a worlde to see how divers men being bent to
buildinge, and having a delectable view in s])ending of their goodes by that trade, doo
dailie imagine new devises of thylr owne to guide tlieir workmen withall, and those more
curious and excellent than the former."
(p
336.) The fashion was no less prevalent in
cities and towns than in the country ; for in them we find that timber-framed houses
abounded, and that they also were highly ornamented with carvings, and exhibited in tlieir
street fronts an exuberance of extremely grotes<]ue figures performing the office of corbels.
The fashion w^s imported from the Continent, which supplies numberless exainiiles,
especially in the cities of Rouen, Bruges, Ulm, Louvain, Antwerp, Brussels, Nuiem-
burg, and Strasburg, very far surpassing any that this country can boast. We have,
however, sufficient r.niains of them in England to prove tliat tlie wealthy burgess
affectfd an ornamental display in the exterior of his dwelling, rivalling that of the aris-
tocracy, and wanting neither elegance nor elaborate finishing, whilst it was productive of
a highly picturesque effect in the street architecture of the day. "Tliis manner," says
Daliaway,
"
was certainly much better suited to the painter's eye than to comfortable
liabitation
;
for the houses were lofty enough to admit of many stories and subdivisions,
and being generally jiiaced in narrow streets were full of low and gloomy a])artments,
overhanging each other, notwithstanding that they had fronts, which with the projecting
windows and the interstices were filled for nearly the whole space with glass." Fiy. 201 is a
representation of Moreton Old Hall, Cheshire, built circa 1550-59, partly rebuilt 1602.
440. A better ide i of the architecture of this age cannot be obtained than by a notice
of the principal architects who have furnished materials for the toregning observations
;
for this purpose we shall refer to Walpole's Anecdotes A folio book of drawings,
belonging to the Earl of Warwick in the time of VValpole, enabled him to bring to
the knowledge of the world, and pi rpetuate the memory of, an artist of no mean
powers, whose name, till that author's time, was almost buried in oblivion, and of