Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1882-11-24

That very few old houses should re-
main which are now worth looking ut is
partly because in London very few ever
were worth looking ut, and Of those the
greater number were not well built. In
this climate building must be strong to
stand the weather, and in London strong
houses were till very lately the exception.
Before the Great Fire most houses were
built of wood, and probably many
churches. The party walls only were OF
stone, aud brick was rare. Some Of these
wooden houses must have been pictures
que in the extreme. Two or three may
be still seen along the Strand. They are
not very ancient, ii is true, but they be-
long to the time When ''thc true prluci-
pies of Greek or Gothic were unthought
of. and every man followed what happen
ed to be good fashion. \ house III
Great Queen Street. said to have been
built by lingo Jones for Lord Herbert,
Of Cherbury, is still in part standing, and
has something fine ahon; II yet. In a
few cases, also, newly-frontcd houses
have old features within. Near Convent
Garden is the supposed residence of lui-
go himself, concealed behind modern
plaster, but now containing only part OF
staircase Of his time. The lover of the
real Queen Anne style, as distinguished
from the mongrel Stuart, which is too
often called by the name, may find few
strongly-built, plain, deep-corniced
houses, which look MS Wren, or possibly
Jones, had designed them. Some exam
pies are i'll the city, as III Great st. Ho!-
ems and in Mooigate others in places in
the suburbs where we should never ex-
pect to find them, as, for example, in
Kensington Square, the date of which Is
known to have been the reign of William
Ill, at Hampstead, and about the back
courts on Tower Hill. What it is that
gives the charm of picturesqueness to Il
house or room seems, like the flavor of
true poetry, to be incapable of definition.
Some of the best educated, most ambi-
tious, and i'll certain respects most sue
clssful of modern architects never man
age to come near it. Others ALWAYS reach
it MS if by instinct. A whole villnge OF
cd-brick, red-tiled houses, purposely in
tended to look pretty, fails IN many places
MS may be seen i'll the nelghborhood of
Chiswick while long plain, unyaried
/ front, such rs lingo Jones designed for
the western side of Lincolns Inn Fields,
gives the eye new pleasure each time the
simple fiat pllasters and the well-recessed
windows are seen. No doubt much of
this beauty comes from proportion. One
is sometimes tempted to doubt if any
modern architect has studied proportions
as it was studied two hundred years ago.
| No guesswork, however happy, can hope
/ to excel the well-thoughtout proportions
of such buildings as the desecrated crypt
of the Guild Hall, or the interior of
Crosby Hall, or one of Wren's or Barry S
limitations of Italian architecture. OF
course, the art in such cases is to conceal
the art, and so it is often overlooked; but
the imitator who does not know is easily
found out. What we want in our Lon
don domestic life at the present day is
some means of emancipation from the
sameness of modern houses. The model
for palace in Belgravia is the same as
for villa in n so-called terrace in Not
ting Hill. Variety is costly, and the
builders hate t.--.Saturday RerieW.