INTRODUCTION. 



13 



Improvements in the architecture of mansions, and the other 

 necessary or convenient appendages of country residences, have 

 been gradually introduced in proportion to the progressive im- 

 provement and additional wants of society. From the earliest 

 periods of British history, until the beginning of the sixteenth 

 century, the mansions or castles were almost invariably built in 

 that style generally denominated gothic, including several va- 

 rieties, all which are easily distinguished from the regular ar- 

 chitecture of Greece and Rome. In its rudest state it was in- 

 troduced by the Danes, whose castles seem to have been little 

 better than dungeons*. These were much improved by Al- 

 fred f, and afterwards greatly enlarged by Gundulph, Bishop 

 of Rochester, who first introduced windows, sally ports, and 

 greatly improved the forms of the loops or arrow holes if. From 

 this time improvements were rapid, until in the reign of Henry 

 III.; the noble castles of Conway and Caernarvon, and after- 

 wards, during the reigns of Elizabeth and James, Had don 

 House, Knowle, Kowdry, and Penchurch, may be said to have 

 completed the progress of gothic mansions. About this time, 

 Grecian architecture began to be mixed with the other style, 

 which at first corrupted it, but afterwards, chiefly from Queen 

 Anne's reign to that of his present Majesty, produced the mag- 

 nificent palaces of Burleigh, Castle Howard, Blenheim, Ked- 



* As Conningsburgh in Yorkshire, and Castleton in Derbyshire, 

 f Clifford's Tower at York is said to have been built by this king. 

 % See Rochester Castle. 



c 3 



