sidering the history of the times, a matter of small curiosity; where, though all the surrounding country were hostile, fresh air might be safely enjoyed; and the commanding view of the singularly beautiful landscape around, from both that little garden and the bow-window of the oriel, is so managed as to leave no doubt of the purpose.

The opportunity which has been ably used to have this little front, containing the private apartments, not only so pleasantly situated, but so strongly by nature, on a rock whose precipitous sides sink into the river, that hardly an arrow's shot could disturb the enjoyment even of the little terraced garden which has been managed before it, is not wholly beyond the architect's purpose to observe. But more for our immediate object is the style of this front of the private apartments of this palace of the first Edward. It more resembles a house that Palladio might have designed, than the things now built in what is called the Gothic style. The character indeed of the ecclesiastical architecture, alone seen within, could not be wholly concealed without. But the reserve with which it is shown is striking. Whether the architect was or was not acquainted with the words of Horace's interdiction of the extravagances of fancy, in his limitation of the

'Quidlibet audendi potestas,' the spirit of it was largely impressed on his mind:

• Sed non ut placidis coeant immitia, non ut
Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni.'

Those who would build houses in imitation of castles, or who would convert real old castles, generally better left mere ornaments of landscape would do well to study Conway.

The Castellan style, for exterior architecture, has great advantages over the Ecclesiastical. The lofty round tower, rising, like the Grecian column, in one uninterrupted line to its capital, the machicolated and battlemented parapet, is a noble object. Two such towers, at the distance convenient for a gateway between them, with an arch of height nearly to reach the parapet, that arch inscribed in a parallelogram, and other arches and parallelograms below and within it, form a combination of imposing grandeur. It were indeed difficult to design such a tower, or such a combination, so as not to have a great effect. The unbroken length of curtain, then, from tower to tower in the circuit of the walls, and their height, and the towers themselves, projected externally always, upward often, and the shades thrown by these are all advantageous, for sublimity rather than for beauty, yet for what may be called an elegant grandeur. The small

openings, commonly seen in castles, are but as varieties in the surface; not materially interrupting the breadth, whether in light or in shadow. I know not that any thing of this kind has been even proposed in modern buildings called Gothic: the comforts required in a modern mansion, with the generally necessary limitation of expence, too much forbid. In ancient castles converted to modern dwellings, it has been best retained, and, as far as I have had opportunity to see, I think retained only, at Warwick and Alnwick.

LETTER IX.

English Military and Domestic Architecture after Edward the First.-Plantagenet Ecclesiastical Architecture how far properly English.

FROM what I have had means to observe, I should suppose the remains of Edward the first's castles to be the best existing examples of the best architecture, both military and domestic, of his age. Afterward the ecclesiastical, as might be expected, more and more mixed itself with both. The great military entrance of Lancaster castle, of grandeur such as much to have struck the very able architect of late years employed upon the building, yet very inferior to Carnarvon, has the pointed arch. But, throughout that magnificent edifice, all the smaller openings had the horizontal lintel.

It appears however that, after a security for person and property, little known in those ages on the continent of Europe, was established for the realm of England, by the excellent policy of that great prince Henry the Second, the military style of domestic architecture being no longer equally wanted, castles were built only, or almost only, where a foreign enemy was to be apprehended; on the borders of Scotland and Wales, and on some parts of the southern coast, liable to de

scents of transmarine foes. Fine timber abounded in most parts of the country, and over-abounded in many, there being no market for it. Stone advantageous for building, was, in many parts not found, and in few was equally ready for use as the timber: the art of brickmaking was out of practice, if not out of knowledge. The houses therefore, even of the wealthiest, were mostly of timber; some of them of great magnificence. In these the ecclesiastical style of the day universally prevailed. The chapel, of course, was of the ecclesiastical character; even the great hall bore some resemblance to a church; and the rest of the house to a monastery: or rather the whole resembled a monastery, with its church and refectory, the chambers being little better than monastic cells. If, in either the monastery, or the family dwelling, anything, beyond the chapel and the eating-hall, had any architectonic merit, it was the kitchen. This, in some larger monasteries, and also in some larger family mansions, was in peculiar style of building; of which the octagonal kitchen of Glastonbury abbey may be called even a magnificent example.

Where our ecclesiastical architecture of the Plantagenet reigns originated has been much in question. Its wide differences from the Saracenic, under which there was once a disposition to class it, has, of later times, been largely shown and