Until the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the large buildings in this country had either been castles for security, or colleges and religious retreats; many of these had been converted into palaces, or altered to adapt them to royal residences, by such changes in their original forms, as, at length, introduced that mixed character, called QUEEN ELIZABETH'S, or HOUSE GOTHIC; which is, in reality, the only Gothic style that can be made perfectly characteristic of a palace. This assertion is confirmed by the numerous attempts to revive the Gothic style in modern-built houses, which evidently shew how inapplicable are these ancient models for the present purposes of habitation.
