REMODELLING OF DOMESTIC OFFICES 117 



dressing-room, and various back stairs serving both his lordship's 

 rooms and those of his lady. 



From this it will be seen that the tendency was to increase 

 the subdivision of duties and the general convenience of arrange- 

 ment (by means of back stairs, among other things), and to allot 

 more rooms to the principal servants. At the same time special 

 provision was made for state occasions in the state rooms and 

 presence chamber. It must be remembered that these plans of 

 Durham House were made in 1649, although they were never 

 carried out. They indicate a desire to increase at once the 

 convenience and the stateliness of the house, and although it was 

 designed on strictly classic lines, everything was not yet sub- 

 ordinated, as in later years, to the supposed necessities of 

 architectural grandeur. In some of his other plans, many of 

 which were studies in design rather than practical work, Webb 

 was almost as great a sinner as his successors of the early 

 eighteenth century. 



The external appearance of houses had changed even more 

 than their plans. Gables had almost disappeared ; dormer 

 windows no longer rose from the walls, wrought in stone or 

 brick, but from the roofs and made of wood ; the roofs them- 

 selves assumed a flatter pitch and generally started from widely 

 projecting eaves. Windows were no longer mullioned and 

 transomed into many small lights, but consisted of one large 

 opening enclosing a wooden frame, which at first was divided by 

 wood mullions, but later was filled with sliding sashes. The 

 general appearance of the house was more compact than of 

 old but less picturesque ; it was more regular, and depended 

 largely upon the nice spacing of the windows, upon its propor- 

 tions, and its more scholarly detail. 



This scholarly detail gradually ousted the naive design of 

 the Jacobean craftsmen. To be scholarly you had to be correctly 

 Italian, and therefore the quaint mixtures and the quaint native 

 growths that sprang from an imperfect acquaintance with the 

 true gospel of Italian design were discountenanced. Fancy was 

 to be smothered by knowledge. Nevertheless it is odd to find 

 how long the strapwork motif survived, which we are apt to 

 think of as Dutch ; it is found in work of Charles II. 's time and 

 even later ; Webb made use of it, and even Jones himself did 

 not disdain it, as may be seen from some of his designs for 

 chimney-pieces (Figs. 91-94). 



