Notes and Reviews 
MR. GOTCH’S “EARLY RENAIS¬ 
SANCE IN ENGLAND.” 1 
F EW architectural subjects have been 
more thoroughly discussed, or profusely 
illustrated,—especially in recent years,— 
than the English Renaissance ; but the fact 
that its earlier history has been less fully dealt 
with accounts for the recent appearance of a 
handbook by Mr. Gotch, in which he has 
endeavored to trace systematically the growth 
of architectural style in England, from the 
close of the Gothic 
period (i<;oo) to the 
advent of Inigo Jones 
(1625). To a con¬ 
siderable extent the 
book is an exhaustive 
discussion ot the brief 
text in Mr. Gotch’s 
earlier work in two large 
folios, “ Architecture 
of the Renaissance in 
England,” published in 
1894; but while those 
two volumes contain a 
series of large photo¬ 
graphic reproductions 
of Elizabethan and 
Jacobean buildings, 
with a brief account 
of each, the present 
work is primarily a 
description and critical 
history of the very 
gradual appearance of 
the Italian style in 
England. Its sole 
object is to explain 
“the effect of this foreign influence upon 
our native architecture up to the point 
when it became predominant, and stamped 
our buildings with a character more Classic 
than Gothic”; and in this the book is quite 
successful. 
The presentation of the author’s thoughts 
and his statements of facts are not always so 
happy as could be desired, but his opinions 
are of authoritative value. There is scarcely 
a type of building, an architectural feature 
either external or internal, or a relative 
circumstance typical of the times, which 
Mr. Gotch has not treated of at considerable 
THE 
k SWAN INN 
From 44 Early Renaissance 
length, although the environment of build¬ 
ings and the subject of gardens is but briefly 
alluded to, and only in so far as architectural 
design was bestowed upon the terraces, walls 
and garden-houses. 
The illustrations include drawings, half¬ 
tones, and collotypes, (a few of which have 
been reproduced from the previous work) 
and represent the best examples under the 
various headings of the book. Details of 
the buildings are unusually well set forth 
and many of the illustrations are from 
photographs made by 
the author himself. 
A chapter is devoted 
to John Thorpe and 
his drawings, without 
further discussion as to 
the sixteenth century 
“surveyor’s” author¬ 
ship of most, if not 
all, of the two hundred 
and eighty drawings in 
the Soane Museum ; 
and in the final chapter, 
which is in substance 
the theme of a paper 
read by the author 
several years ago, it is 
quite evident that the 
idea of an architect, as 
his position is under¬ 
stood to-day, received 
its first striking em¬ 
bodiment in the 
person of Inigo Jones. 
On the whole Mr. 
Gotch has given us a 
comprehensive volume, 
valuable either to the student of architec¬ 
ture or of history. He has appended a 
useful bibliography of selected works, 
dating as far back as 1450, and also a 
complete index to the text and illustra¬ 
tions. An unfortunate mechanical defect 
is the inferior manner in which the book 
is bound. 
1 Earlv Renaissance Architecture in England : A Historical and 
Descriptive Account ot the Tudor, Elizabethan, and Jacobean Periods. 
By J. Alfred Gotch, F. S. A. 231 ills, in the text. 87 full-page 
plates. B. T. Batsford, London, 1901. Imported by Charles 
Scribner’s Sons, New York. Price, $9.00 net. 
LECHLADE 
Architecture in England 
