26 ARCHITECTURAL PUBLICATIONS OF THE TIME 



term is obvious : there were hardly any people who called them- 

 selves architects. 



The publication of these books is itself a sign of the change 

 which was coming over the methods of design. Hitherto 

 design had been a matter of tradition, preserved by guilds, 

 handed down from father to son or from master to man. The 

 horizon of a mediaeval workman was limited : he neither knew 

 nor cared much for what was being done in distant lands. His 

 style was influenced by local considerations, and although he 

 conformed to the general changes which affected the whole of 

 Gothic architecture, there was usually a local flavour about his 

 work. The difference in character between the work in Norfolk, 

 Northamptonshire, and Somerset is obvious at first sight : but 

 a closer scrutiny will often reveal local variations in those 

 districts themselves. 



Why were these books published, and what kind of 

 architectural style did they illustrate? Did they bring before 

 the eye of the designer masterpieces of Gothic architecture, or 

 details of Gothic work ? Not at all : no book illustrating 

 Gothic architecture was published till the end of the eighteenth 

 century. 1 There was, in truth, no need for such a book : the 

 mediaeval workmen had their own traditional knowledge, and 

 it concerned them not at all to learn how the workmen in 

 Germany or southern France or Spain differed in method from 

 themselves. They gave no thought to such matters, nor did 

 they think of themselves as being concerned with architecture ; 

 they merely built in the manner of their fathers. 



But although the successors of the mediaeval craftsmen in 

 the mid-sixteenth century shared their predecessors' apathy in 

 respect of what was being done abroad, it was otherwise with 

 those for whom they worked the great men who were building 

 fine houses all over the land. To these had come new ideas in 

 relation to their buildings. They had heard of the splendid 

 work that for years had been executed in Italy : some of them had 



1 The publication of "Gothic Architecture, Improved by Rules and 

 Proportions," by B. and T. Langley, in 1742, does not invalidate this 

 statement, for the illustrations are intended to show how a kind of Gothic 

 detail might be applied to a kind of classic " order." The " Historical 

 Dissertation on Gothic Architecture," attached by way of introduction, is 

 absolutely negligible in the light of modern knowledge, and could have 

 helped nobody to a comprehension of the subject. 



