and upright bars: and, deprived of tracery and featherin were as void of beauty in the details as in the gene proportions; buttresses and battlements were genera omitted. A great deterioration took place in the decute tive part; the ornamental pannels and friezes of Gothic style, consisting of geometrical combinations circles and straight lines, had always a distinct outline and sharpness of effect which contrasted agreeably with t foliage so often intermixed; but these were succeeded! strange grotesque combinations; confused, and void outline and regularity. The source of ornament was now sought in the orders and members of Grecian architecture, but the eyes which had been accustomed to the Gothis flutter of parts, were not prepared to relish the simplic of line which is essential to the beauty of the Greek sty Columns of a small size, inaccurately and coarsely executed, with arcades and grotesque caryatids, formed the ornaments of porches and frontispieces, as at Browseholme-house in Yorkshire; Wimbledon; and the Schools-tower at Oxford, or were spread over the whole front and formed the cloisters and galleries in which those ancient mansions abounded; as at Holland-house, Longleat, Wollaton, Audley End, Longford-castle, &c. The roofs were either faced with notched and curved gables, or screened by parapets of balusters or latticed work; and decorated with obelisks and columnar chimney shafts: while turrets and pavilions broke the line of elevation. The windows were very large and frequently bowed: thus Bacon remarks, in the Essay before referred to, that you shall have sometimes fair houses so full of glass that one cannot tell where to become to be out of the sun or cold.' In wooden houses, and particularly town houses, the upper stories generally projected beyond the lower, with windows extremely wide, so as to occupy almost the whole line of front. The timbers were frequently left bare, carved and disposed in forms of pannelling; while the various projections were supported by grotesque figures. Very curious houses of this character are still found in several old towns, as Chester, Shrewsbury, Coventry and the obscure parts of London; though natural decay, fire, and modern improvements, are continually diminishing their number. Among interior decorations, chimney-pieces were very conspicuous: they were miniature frontispieces, consisting, like the porches of the houses, of a mass of columns, arches, niches, and caryatids, piled up to the ceiling. Of these there is one at the old Tabley-hall in Cheshire, singularly rude and grotesque; though dated so late as 1619; containing a hunting-piece and the figures of Lucrece and Cleopatra. Another in queen Elizabeth's gallery at Windsor Castle is very rich; and comparatively pure and elegant in design. The sepulchral monuments of this age are very numerous, but only differ from those of an earlier date in the substitution of the members of Grecian, for those of Gothic architecture, or rather in the confused mixture of both. The unformed style of this period is well charactered in the following lines of Spenser, describing the access to the island containing the temple of Venus.. "It was a bridge ybuilt in goodly wise, fair; And arched all with porches did arise On the whole, this, though a glorious period for literature, was lost for the fine arts. The incongruous mixture of the conflicting principles of Grecian and Gothic architecture produced buildings more truly barbarous, more disgusting to a cultivated taste, than the rudest Norman work. Together with the architectural orders, our artists had received models and authorities for the grotesque style; which they were but too ready to follow. This extraordinary style of ornament had prevailed in ancient Rome early enough to be reprobated in the work of Vitruvius; and lay unobserved among obscure and subterraneous ruins til the discovery of the baths of Titus opened a rich mag zine of gay and capricious ornament. Raffaelle, struck with these remains of the antique art of painting, adoptad the same style of ornament in the galleries of the Vatican enriching and enlivening it with the stores of allegory and mythology furnished by his poetical fancy. The exampl of such a man could not want imitators; it influenced the whole architecture of France; which very early possessed artists of great merit; - and appeared in this country with! very inferior effect. It may well be imagined that this style, naturally licentious, and only rendered tolerable by grace of composition and brilliancy of execution, would become utterly contemptible when presenting only coarsely executed and unmeaning extravagances. Such was the general character of art. We may how ever make discriminations, and admit comparative merit Wimbledon-house, seated on the side of a hill, was remarkable for a magnificent disposition of steps and terraces worthy an Italian villa. Wollaton-hall is admired by Mr. Price for the grandeur of its masses. Charlton-house has a very picturesque arrangement of heights in the ele vation; Longleat, on the other hand, has much simplicity of form. In its square projections and three orders of columns or pilasters, it bears no remote resemblance to the ancient part of the Louvre built about thirty years previously; though without the purity and delicacy of the details of the architecture and sculpture which distinguish the French building. EDMUND AIKIN Liverpool, February 10, 1818. INDEX. Boleyn, Thomas, earl of Wilts, 10. Con- Bonner, bishop, 146. 148. 181. , Henry, earl of Essex, 7 Catherine, duchess dow- ager of Suffolk, 117. Robert, II. 108. C. Cabot, Sebastian, 441-3. Cary, Henry, lord Hunsdon, 241. Robert, II. 315. 495. William, lord Burleigh, 96. 414. 449 et seq. Attempt made Devereux, Walter, earl of Essex, Cecil, sir Thomas, II. 221. —, sir Robert, II. 222. 284. 374. 477. Chaloner, sir Thomas, 284. His 7. 43. 44. Edward, earl of Devon, 131. 136. 168. 182 and 3. 47.55. Cromwell, Thomas, earl of Essex, D. Dacre, Leonard, 477, 478, 9, and Darnley, lord, 382.413. Dee, Dr. II. 40. Denmark, prince of, proposed in Robert, earl of Essex, con, 544. Conduct respecting Lopez, 353. View of his and the Discovery, voyages of, II. 510 et Dorset, marchioness dowager, 9. 60. See Lenox, countess of. 199. 226. 252. 254. Death and character of, 364. |