837 



ELIZABETHAN ARCHITECTURE. 



ELIZABETHAN ARCHITECTURE. 



and frequently filled in with arabesques or other ornaments, among 

 which raised facetted blocks are very common ones. Entablatures are 

 almost invariably made to break over columns, and are so crowded with 

 mouldings and other carvings as to have the look of being all cornice. 

 Orders are usually applied only to parts of a front ; for instance, the 

 centre, which is marked out as a lofty frontispiece or portal ornamented 

 with several tiers of columns, and thus not only distinguished from 

 the rest, but in many instances rendered quite distinct from it, all 

 besides being comparatively genuine Tudor, without any intermixture 

 of foreign elements. Even where such is not the case, the Tudor phy- 

 siognomy manifests itself in windows and bays, which last are almost 

 as peculiar to our English architecture of the period as small circular 

 towers and turrets with conical or spire-like roofs are to that of Flan- 

 ders and France. Although square-headed, and without tracery of any 

 kind, the windows retain a good deal of the latest Gothic or perpen- 

 dicular character, being divided by mullions and transoms into nume- 

 rous compartments after the manner of panelling, a mode that freely 

 admits of a window being made of any extent ; and not only are single 



windows sometimes exceedingly spacious, but they are put so closely 

 together ag to render the whole of a front nearly all window. This 

 fashion, which however is only an occasional variety of the style, is 

 strikingly exemplified by Hardwick, Derbyshire, and by what is called 

 "the Duke's House," at Bradford, Wilts. The front of this latter 

 building is made up entirely of windows and bays, in a manner that 

 would be too monotonous, were not the plan-line broken by semi- 

 circular projections being thrown out, as smaller bays, from the larger 

 ones. Thus the design acquires a pleasing playfulness of form ; and it 

 is besides not only marked by perfect regularity of composition, but 

 also by a certain compactness, the windows not having the appearance 

 of being intended for separate openings squeezed together for want of 

 more space. The parapets upon the bays, consisting of fanciful open- 

 work, enhance the general richness of effect, and both they and the 

 parapetted terrace serve to indicate what are pleasing peculiarities in 

 the style. A more characteristic Elizabethan mansion is Wollaton, 

 Nottinghamshire, of which we give an engraving. Among the most 

 magnificent palatial residences of this period are Longleat, Burleigh, 



Wollaton House, Nottinghamshire. 



Hatfield, Holland House, Kensington, and Hardwick, mentioned above. 

 The building here given by way of specimen affords a good example of 

 the characteristic Elizabethan gable, a feature so singularly diversified 

 that to exhibit only the leading varieties of it would require a series 

 of cute, beginning with the simplest and proceeding to the most com- 

 plex forms. We give one other example of an Elizabethan gable ; but 





[Gable Scro.l.work, from Kichardeon's ' Elizabethan Architecture.'] 



it in necessary to say that almost every imaginable combination of 

 curve*, both concave and convex, with straight lines and angles, are to 

 be met with in gables of this period. Differently shaped gables often 



occur in the same building, and produce great effect of outline, which 

 is increased by embellished parapets, with balls and other ornaments 

 upon them, by small domes on turrets, and by chimney-shafts, all 

 which, mingled together in glorious confusion, often give an air of 

 picturesque magnificence to what are otherwise rather plain and 

 homely structures, and impart animation to what would else be 

 lumpish masses. In like manner, porches and balustraded terraces 

 often give much character to the lower part of a building, while the 

 upper may be comparatively flat and uninteresting. 



The plan of an Elizabethan manor-house is often that of two pro- 

 jecting wings and a central porch, so often, indeed, that it has been 

 supposed that it was intended, in compliment of Elizabeth, to repre- 

 sent the letter E, the initial of her name : a not unlikely thing, as it 

 was not unusual to make the plans of buildings allusive. John 

 Thorpe, the great English architect of the Elizabethan age, designed a 

 house for himself which was to take the form of his own initials, J. T. : 

 the drawings are in the Soane Library. To the internal characteristics 

 of the Elizabethan style belong spacious bay-windows ; long and ample 

 galleries, but generally of low proportions ; massive and elaborately 

 sculptured chimney-pieces; screens of similar character, either with 

 open arches or doors ; wainscoted and panelled walls ; ceilings highly 

 enriched, and sometimes arched, and entirely covered with scroll-work 

 foliage; and wide staircases with richly carved balustrades, and heraldic 

 figures of animals at the angles, were important features in the general 

 design. 



The prevailing character is that of heaviness and stateliness, on 

 which account it is ill-suited for literal imitation at the present day, 

 especially for houses upon a moderate scale, or for small rooms. In 

 external architecture many of the defects of detail are merged in the 

 picturesque impressiveness of the whole ; but a similar degree of 

 capriciousness and heaviness brought near to the eye within a room, is 

 apt to strike chiefly as too rudely grotesque and ponderous ; besides 

 which it is an expensive style for internal finishings, for though it will 

 very well bear to be greatly refined upon, it hardly admits of being 

 simplified, decoration even partaking of gorgeousness being "almost 

 indispensably necessary to conceal the native uncouthness of both 

 forms and proportions. Still, a judicious modification, or rather 

 perhaps a free development, of the style is well adapted for brick and 

 stone, such contrast of colour seeming natural to it, and serving to 

 bring out the several parts more distinctly. We hardly need observe 

 that the brick ought invariably to be red, and of superior quality and 

 execution; for white or yellow bricks are so far from producing a 

 similar effect, that they have both an insipid and mean appearance, the 



