680 PROCEEDmGS OF SECTION .H. 



England a genuine playfulness was balanced by a sense of dignity. 

 In Central Europe the dignity overshadowed the playfulness, and 

 in France the playfulness often overshadowed the dignity. The 

 Gothic of the Netherlands was as heavy as its people and flat as 

 its country. The aixhitecture of Spain felt largely the influence of 

 its Moorish neighbour, and that of Italy the influence of either 

 Byzantium or ancient Italy, according to geographical position. 

 The revival of letters naturally led to a renaissance in architecture. 

 The ancient classic forms w£re again revived, but with a variety and 

 freedom which was the legacy of Gothic art. 



From that time onwards the art has had many vicissitudes, 

 according to the temperament of each succeeding generation. 



In England, during the period of the Georges, architecture as 

 an art became almost defunct. The Victorian era saw a wonderful 

 revival of the art spirit. This commenced with tentative efforts to 

 adapt to modern requirements one ancient style after another. The 

 Gothic, Elizabethan, Jacobean, Queen Anne, Romanesque, Byzantine, 

 and Renaissance followed each other in quick succession. 



The battle of the styles which raged so strongl^y in the middle 

 of Queen Victoria's reign is now happily ended. Artists recognise that 

 there is a distinctive beauty in all styles, and while Gothic is in 

 England still generally maintained as the true ecclesiastical type, 

 a free type of Romanesque and Renaissance has been generally 

 adopted for civil buildings, and these have been developed on lines 

 distinctive of the era. 



While the foregoing resume is, I am afraid, long enough to have 

 exhausted your patience, it is far too fragmentary for my purpose, 

 Many of the side streams of progress have not been touched upon, 

 and of the rest it Avould be impossible in a short paper to mark the 

 stages of gradual transition. I hope, however, to have made it clear 

 that advancement has never been by leaps and boimds, but by gradual 

 improvements and a cumulation of almost imperceptible changes. If 

 this is admitted, it is evident that those architects who aim at assist- 

 ing in the development of an Australian style must first have a 

 thorough academic knowledge of what has gone before. 



We are the heirs of the accumulated effort and knowledge of the 

 ancients, and it is for us to cull from the past all that is suitable to 

 our requirements, blending them with taste into an harmonious whole. 

 The ecclesiastical temperament is essentially conseiwative, and 

 while it is doubtful whether Gothic aixhitecture is best suited for 

 our conditions, it seems likely to hold its own for some time in church 

 design. Australia has, however, a few examples of original treat- 

 ment of the Romanesque which ma}^ well tempt to further effort in 

 this direction. 



It is in domestic rather than in ecclesiastical architecttire that 

 Australia may be expected to develop originality. But before much 

 satisfactory result will be attained the nation must have formed dis- 

 tinctive character and habits. We are at present too near our parent 

 stock to have formed new habits except in as far as climatic condi- 

 tions l\ave constrained us. 



At present our houses are adaptations of eitlier English or 

 American types. The fireplace, the central feature of the English 



