The English Home from Charles I. to George IV.

There are two views as to English architecture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. On the one hand, it is held that in the days of Elizabeth architectural design shows a freshness, vivacity, and originality which express the genius of the time, and result in a truly national style, albeit one which never quite fulfilled its promise; and that in later periods designers became more and more imitative, and thereby lost from their work, however correct and refined, those qualities which make for supreme achievement.

On the other hand, it is held that the designers of Elizabeth’s time were hampered in their efforts at architectural expression by a lack of knowledge; that they discarded many of the old ideas without appreciating the full significance of the new ideas which they were anxious to adopt; and that as they gained wider knowledge, so did their architecture improve.