4. But though the churches were much out of repair, in some of them stately and costly monuments were erected in the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth centuries. They were different from the monuments set up before the Reformation, and were usually built against a wall. They were of various coloured marbles, the effigies lying under circular-headed canopies, supported by columns in the Italian style. The effigies of man and wife were usually represented clad in robes of state, coloured, their children kneeling round the tomb in various attitudes.
5. By and by, instead of the effigies being represented as lying on their backs, with hands clasped, they were shown lying on one side, supporting their heads on their hands. There are many such monuments in Westminster Abbey, and in almost every old town church one or more can be seen.
6. It became a very common practice for one of the old chapels, built on to the parish church, to be set apart as the private burial-place of a great land-owner. Many new chapels were built for this special purpose. In them we may see specimens of the different fashions in monuments from Tudor days, or earlier, right down to the present time.
Summary.—Much was destroyed in the churches during the violent changes made in the form of worship. In some cases the churches were let go to decay, so that there might be no church to go to. There were secret chambers built in many Tudor houses, where those in danger might hide.
It was a great time for setting up splendid monuments in the Italian style, usually brilliantly coloured and ornamented.
[CHAPTER XLIII]
BUILDING AFTER THE RESTORATION: HOUSES
1. The most notable architect after the Great Fire of London was Sir Christopher Wren, and his master-piece is, of course, St. Paul's Cathedral. He designed, too, most of the city churches. The style was adopted in various parts of the country by various noblemen for building great houses. Brick was regarded as too mean a material for such very grand houses, and stone was used for facing them.
Photo. Valentine
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, LONDON: SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN'S MASTERPIECE (page 169)
2. In the houses which Wren built brick was very largely used. He introduced rubbed bricks, and had them laid with very close joints. We have some very fine examples of such brickwork in gables of various forms in the early part of the eighteenth century—the reign of Queen Anne.