T«92' on taste in archrtecturi'. ■ ifl 



and all tlie f?iie arts which had ftauriili:;d to adm'.;a- 

 tion, and for so long a period in Greece and Italy, 

 fell into disrepute, and were overwhelmed by Asiatic 

 barbarisms, and the whims of extraordinary and 

 sudden influx of wealth from the plunder of the pro- 

 vinces. Thus you see the age of fine taste 'in archi- 

 tecture, either by invention or imitation, in Greece 

 or in Italy, extended only to the continuance of five 

 or six centuries. All before or after is one blank or 

 blot in the annals of art or of literature. Methinks 

 I hear the voice of ages crying aloud to nations, 

 " Discite libertatem, moniti non adcrare reges." 

 Sensible Sir, of the respectable prejudices of great 

 men, I exprefs myself with caution in an unknown 

 language. If is fit that men who pretend to have 

 taste fhould not fhock the eyes or ears of the elegant 

 elohims of the earth. 



A? it seems desirable, that every individual who 

 pretends to be what was formerly understood by the 

 appellation of a gentleman, and who are now called 

 esquires, Ihould be acquainted with the coTistruction 

 of the houses of ancient R.ome, before they became 

 accommodated to foreign luxury, I fliall endeavour, 

 in very few words, and witJiout the interpositioii of 

 quotation or of foreign languages, to describe with 

 Engliih phrase and idiom, the places of abode of the 

 more wealtny citizens, who had obtained high and 

 lucrative employments in the commonwealth. 



After the frequent fires that had destroyed whole 

 quarters of the city, and particularly after the gerie- 

 ral conflagration that occurred in the reign of Nero, 

 -the streets which before that time had been as nar- 



