The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-21
r .TACOBEAN.
The Blending SC English Gothic with
"reminiscences IheuS.

driven out by the passion for the classical
styles which the Renaissance inspired In
Italy; il fingered on for centuries, gaining
nearly always, like some beautiful old face,
a new charm OF expressiveness to CON-
pensate for those more obvious Projections
which il nae lost. 1t is not, ! think, fAnciful
to suppose that the cause Of this euthan asia
consists largely in the fact that It was the
perpendicular which became the most
permanent and essentially English style OF
Gothic architecture. Ii was not only that
the perpendicular style, erring as it does
rather on the side Of cOldness and lack OF
imagination, was by its very nature I'M
likely to fall into the ~extravagant or the
bizarre; but its chief safeguard, for the
preservation both OF its -permanence and
its charm, lay in it's peculiar a~daptability
to the purposes OF domestic architecture.
At the very time tthe EliAabethan age)
when English ecclesiastical architec ture
was either bad or non existent those manor
houses we're being built which seem to 40
many OF us the most delightful places OF
residence that we're ever raised In any age
or country, combining all the historic charm
OF the Gothic tradition with the English
instinct for comfort, satisfied by a thorough
mastery OF architectural rules. Nor must
we forget the influence OF Renaissance ideas
in these still Gothic buildings OF the six
tenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Many a beautiful house rave we seen which,
while Gothic in its general tone and out
line, is 30 full OF Renaissance detail that it
is really hard to know to which style 20
attribute it; buildings which must indeed
have seemed strange and freaSish to a con-
toponorarv foraienar from THAR ancOaaafnl
combination of that which he had e
taught TO belle We most true to the canons
OF art with much which he would condemn
as barbarous and medieval. For, while
il is true that the Renaissance nowhere
made a complete and immediate conquest
Of a country's architecture-there are in
Italy, for example, Gothic portals covered
with classical designs, and strange quasi
classical churches in Brittany with steeples
and all the structural portions Of Il Gothic
buildinR-yet in England that conquest,
which came so much later, came also far
more gradually than in Continental u
tries. F. glishmen have been, as a rule,
but little influenced by pure theory and
abstract prin ciple, and it would appear
that the revived interest in classical art
was never to our o~ountrymen, as to the
Latin races, a new revelation. II ia scarcely
likely that Elizabethan architects had ever
heard Of the doctrines Of Vitruvius, nor did
they modify the received style OF building
out Of any Difference for the greatness OF
ancient Rome. They would seem rather
to have been influenced by another motive,
also highly characteristic Of the Renais-
sance-the motive Of curiosity. Delighted
by what was most Immediately attractive
In the earlier Renaissance buildings OF
Italy and France. they wished to try their
hand. so 70 say. at the new style, and
without any idea OF abandoning the old
TO graft upon it what they liked best OF the
new.
And wonderfully we'll they succeeded.
In those few years Of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries men whose names
have rarely conn down TO us achieved the
successful fusion OF two styles. entirely
different both in spirit and origin. and both
Of them then living styles Of art, not archa-
istio revivaIs-and achieved it, as 1t would
seem. by way Of an experiment. For a
fusion il may justly be called; since. so
harmonious In the general effect OF these
buildings, that only after a critical examl-
nation we remark that the characteristic
perpendicular doorway with its Gothic
mouldings is hanked by pilasters that might
have come from some Roman temple. or
that the tracery Of the Gothic windows Is
entirely classical both in spirit and design.
It IL impossible to analyze the quality OF
these Elizabethan and Jacobean manor
houses. 80 many OF which still fortunately
survive; but I suppose that the reason why
they appeal TO us so strongly and 80 imme-
diately Ia that in them prominently we
have the successful adaptation Of the means
to an end. the union Of delicate fancy with
| perfect taste, and Of a freedom from dog
matio rule with a difference TO received
tradition.
\ Ihave said that it was In domestic archi-
lecture that the builders Of this age ex-
| celled, and the statement needs no defence;
but hero and there, scattered about the
country, we come upon ecclesiastical or
auasi-ec ecclesiastical buildings which, While
lacking the grandeur and fine purity Of
| earlier times, have brought into the sphere
OF eccleeiastical architecture the peculiar
homely charm OF contemporary secular
buildings. Naturally enough, it Is in the
colleges OF u universities that this fortu-
nate adaptation most frequently occurs.
| Oxford, however, spoiled by the tasteless
Gothic revival Of modern times, can still
show many good examples Of the ideas OF
the seventeenth century. The hall and
chapel Of Oriel College, the hall of Exeter
and the chapels OF Lincoln and Jesus must
be numbered among the best buildings
in this style; but the most attractive and
at the same time, the most typical examples
are to DO found in Merton and Wadham
colleges.
Owing to the fact hat Merton has older
buildings than any Of the other colleges
the choir Of the chapel having been COM
pIeted before the end Of the thirteenth
century-one n accustomed to associate
it chiefly with medieval architecture.
though it Possesses in its Fellows Quad
rangle some OF the finest seventeenth CEN
fury buildings in Oxford. They are still
chiefly Gothic in style and feeling, but the
beautiful tower, with its classical pilastersr
10 an admirable example Of the manner in
which the architects Of this period com-
bined the two styles.
Wadham is such a particularly good ex-
ample OF the last phase Of Gothic architect
49, that Z hall allow mvaelf IN GnAak oR