The architecture of humanism; a study in the history of taste

44

THEARCHITECTURE

OF

HUMANISM

tothemiddleofthe

eighteenth

centurythe

mediaeval

stylemerelyspeltdiscomfort,

desolation,

and

gloom.^

Noble

owners,sofarastheiTpurse

allowed,

converted

theirGothicinheritances,

asbestthey

could,to

the

Georgian taste, or rebuilt

them

outright. Then

entersthespirit

ofhistory,the

romance ofthedis-

tant and the past,

with archaeology

at its'heels.

The connoisseurs, about 1740,

are full of zeal for

the stylistic

distinctionsbetween the

Egyptian, the

Gothic, and the Arabesque,

and charmingly

vague

about

theirlimits. Theirstudiesare

pursued with-

out calling in

question the superior

fitness of th^

classical tradition.

Nevertheless, the orthodoxies

of

archaeologynowhold sway. Theyare

submitted

tonotwithout

reluctance. Gray, in

1754,

writes

of

Lord Brooke, at Warwick

Castle:

'

He has sash'd

thegreat

Appartment... andbeingsincetoldthat

square sash-windows

were not Gothic, he has put

certain whim-wams within side the glass, which,

appearingthrough,aremadetolooklike

fret-work.

Then he has scooped out a little Burrough in

the

massy walls of
the

place forhis little selfand his

children, which is hung with chintzesin theexact

*

There werenot wanting those who maintained this opinion

throughoutthewholeperiodoftheromanticmovement. In1831,

whenitwasatitsheight,eventhestatelyandtemperedmedievalism

ofKnolestillinspirestheDuchessedeDinowiththeutmostmelancholy:

'
Cettevieilleffee(thehousekeeper)montrefortbienI'antiqueetlugubre

d6meuredeKnowles,dontlatristesseestincomparable.'—Duchessede

Dino,Chronique.