The best models of pure and simple Grecian architecture, were temples, many without a roof, and all without windows or chimneys. Such models might be imitated in our churches, or public edifices; but houses built from such models would become inconvenient, in proportion as this external simplicity is preserved. For this reason, INIGO JONES, and our early architects in the Grecian style, took their models from buildings of later date (chiefly Roman), where the different floors are marked by different orders placed one over another. As the taste for Grecian architecture became more correct, and, by the works of STUART and others, the more simple original models became better known in England, various attempts have been made to adopt it in modern houses; but a palace, or even a moderate sized residence, cannot be entirely surrounded by a peristyle, like a Grecian temple; and, therefore, the portico alone has been generally adopted*.
*[The difficulty of adapting any order of columns to the windows of a house, is evident, from the portico being sometimes confined to the ground floor only, sometimes extended through two, or even three, floors, and sometimes raised on a basement of arches, unknown to the Grecian character. A more classic expedient has been devised by the ingenious author of the Antiquities of Grecia Magna, in his designs for Harford and Downham colleges; but such lofty portion of windows, though allowable in a public building, would be inapplicable to the purposes of a private house.]
