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“ To the wheels and gibbets of the Duke d’Alva,” says Andrews,“ England is indebted for the improvement of her manufactures: scaredby his inhumanity, the Flemish artisans fled hither in shoals, and werereceived by Elizabeth with humanity and hospitality.”

By these men, on their various tastes, was formed that style of house-hold furniture which is at this time again so highly esteemed, and soughtto be revived. But the revivers appear to be more deficient in discernmentthan even those who, from Walpole’s time, have been labouring to renewthe architecture of the same era under the name of “ Gothic .” Theircommon fault is, in not distinguishing what was devoted to the service ofGod from that which was devised for the accommodation of man.Church and house architecture* were not so dissimilar in character aschurch and house furniture. Making, therefore, dining-room seats dimi-nutives of cathedral stalls, crenellating footstools, and machicolatingbedsteads, as is now the practice, are still more glaring incongruitiesthan mingling ecclesiastical with domestic features in the constructionof one edifice.

A rational principle of utility pervaded the works of the old artisans;and although some articles were carved in panels, with groups fromsacred history, enriched with representations of shrines, altars, &c., thepieces themselves bore no resemblance in shape to the forms of buildings.Portable buttresses and pinnacles, which we now see applied to light

* “ The taste of all these stately mansions (houses of the 16th century) was that stylewhich intervened between Gothic and Grecian architecture; or which was, perhaps, the stylethat had been invented for the houses of the nobility when they first ventured, on the settle-ment of the kingdom after the termination of the quarrel between the Roses, to abandon theirfortified dungeons, and consult convenience and magnificence : for I am persuaded, that whatwe call Gothic architecture was confined solely to religious buildings, and never entered intothe decorations of private houses.”— Walpole’s Anecdotes of Painting.

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