Chapter XIII: Architecture of the Renaissance in England

I. _Elizabethan Art_

Derivation of the Elizabethan domestic architecture from the
native mediæval art--The reasonable character of the early
Elizabethan house in its integrity--The ostentatious character
and pseudo-classicism of the great English houses of the
sixteenth century--Use of flimsy materials in ornamental
details--General excellence of construction in the main body of
the building--Employment of foreign craftsmen in
ornamentation--Kirby Hall--Its lack of native English
character--Peculiar aberrations in the use of structural forms
without structural functions--Fantastic ornamentation of the
gables--Longford Castle--Its resemblance to Chambord--Manifold
forms of capricious design in Lower Walterstone Hall, Cranborne
Manor-House, Tixall, Stanway, and other buildings--Fantastic
composition of the gate at Caius College, Cambridge--Aberrations
of design in Wollaton Hall--Ungrammatical and tasteless misuse
of distorted classic elements in Elizabethan architecture
largely due to Flemish and Dutch workmen--No professional
architects in Elizabethan times--The classic orders foreign to
the genius and the needs of the English people 216