Sir Henry Wotton, in his “Elements of Architecture,” implies that it was a place for indoor exercise, for he says, in advising as to the aspect of the principal rooms of a house, that on the north side should be placed “all that are appointed for gentle motion, as galleries.” It can hardly have been meant for pictures, as the fashion of collecting them and articles de vertu had not yet arisen. Galleries were generally lighted all down one side and at one or both ends; indeed, continuous lighting was necessary, for their immense length would have rendered lighting from the ends only utterly futile. The illustration from Astley Hall, Lancashire (Fig. 146), gives a good idea of one of these rooms: it is probable, however, that its interest was originally enhanced by an elaborate plaster ceiling.
Most of the bedrooms, at any rate those of any importance, were decorated in the same way as the living rooms; panelled walls, heraldic ceilings, and good chimney-pieces are still to be found in many bedrooms even of moderate size.
CHAPTER XI.
Seventeenth Century—Personal Design—Transitional Treatment.
With the end of the second decade of the seventeenth century there opens a new chapter in English Architecture. Hitherto it had been largely impersonal; now it began to be personal, and its finest manifestations were henceforth to be linked with great names, with Inigo Jones, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir John Vanbrugh, and others. The main cause of the change is to be found in the pursuit of the Italian ideal. Up to this time the erection of houses and churches had not been thought of as “architecture,” but merely as “building.” The processes employed, both in regard to design and to construction, were the outcome of tradition. We have already seen how tradition had been modified in the sixteenth century by the introduction of Italian features, and the imperfect study of Italian models, in obedience to the prevailing fashion of the day, which demanded that particular form of decoration. But it must have been obvious to all instructed eyes that the efforts of English designers, so far as they aimed at a faithful transcript of the foreign copy, had been very wide of the mark. This was only to have been expected from the nature of the circumstances. There was no single mind at work controlling the whole of the design in all its branches. It is true that surveyors were employed to give a general superintendence. These men usually supplied a plan of the house, and not infrequently an elevation. This, at any rate, was the case during the reigns of Elizabeth and James, although there is little evidence that it had been the custom in earlier times. To the surveyors, of whom John Thorpe was the most remarkable, must accordingly be attributed the credit of the houses as a whole; of their arrangement, and of their general appearance. But the details of the treatment were left to artificers in the various trades, to the masons, the carpenters, the plasterers, and the plumbers. It is obvious that these men could not all be equally skilful, or equally conversant with the foreign fashion; and we may well be grateful that it was so, for from their diverse limitations sprang the quaint, piquant, and charming work of the period, endless in its variety yet throughout essentially English; in no other country is just the same development to be found.
But the tide of fashion was flowing strongly in the Italian direction. This can be gathered not only from the appearance of the work itself, and from subsequent developments, but from the drawings of Smithson, the surveyor (or architect), made about 1618, among which are designs for “Italyan wyndowes,” “Italyan gates,” an “Italyan grate,” and a “pergular.” Thorpe, although he had studied foreign books on architecture, and had made careful drawings of the “orders,” makes no reference to “Italyan” features, nor do his details show anything like the same striving after “correct” design that is evident in Smithson’s. A considerable number of young men travelled to Italy for the express purpose of studying the buildings of that country, some being sent thither by wealthy noblemen. A few of their names have been preserved, either through their having, like John Shute, published the results of their labours, or through their having written, as Charles Williams did to Sir John Thynne at Longleat, to offer their services in doing work “after the Italian fashion.” But among all those who went none made such good use of his opportunities or was so gifted by nature to take advantage of them as Inigo Jones. It is to him that we owe the establishment of the matured Renaissance manner in England, the handling of Italian features with real knowledge and skill, the introduction of the full “Classic” style as distinguished from the tentative “Renaissance.” With him, too, started the personal architecture of the designer who controlled the decoration throughout, as opposed to the impersonal architecture of the independent craftsmen who preceded him. The change was a momentous one; whether it resulted in a more pleasing type of building will probably always remain a matter of individual taste.
One notable result of the change was the dividing of house design into two streams: one academic and stately, the other traditional and homely. The one dealt with great mansions and public buildings, and was guided by men of eminence, who studied architecture as a fine art. The other dealt with the smaller houses, with schools, almshouses, and other buildings of less importance, and was guided by men of no especial culture, who probably underwent no more training than could be obtained in a builder’s yard. Hence in out-of-the-way places houses may be found dated in the early years of the eighteenth century closely resembling those built in the early years of the seventeenth. But gradually the early traditions died out; the new classic manner permeated the whole of the building world, and even the smallest houses, so far as they had any pretensions to design at all, complied with the prevailing classic taste.
In the larger buildings there was a tendency to become more and more academic, to design more and more according to rule. Men of genius, like Inigo Jones and Wren, bent these rules to their own purposes; but their successors of the eighteenth century found it easier to let the rules have the mastery, with the result that much of their work is tame and insipid. At the same time they pursued architecture in the abstract, without due regard for its application to house design. The consequence was that most of their efforts, although striking as architectural compositions, are inconvenient as dwelling-houses. This point will be more fully dealt with in its chronological order, meantime we must return on our steps and take up the story where it was left at the close of the reign of James I.
147. Plan of Raynham Park, Norfolk (cir. 1630–36).
