It is only by the contemplation of a variety of buildings of the kind or period intended to be imitated, that the mind of an architect can become sufficiently imbued with the feelings and views which dictated their erection, to enable him to adopt any given style with a certainty of success. The architects of the time of James I. appeared to have aimed at giving a certain degree of stateliness and magnificence to their buildings by the large scale on which every part of them was designed. The dark shadows consequent upon their projecting parts, and the character of their windows, which are large and frequent, pierce the general mass just to a sufficient extent to deprive it of the monumental character, and to communicate to it the necessary one of domestic purpose and habitation. A beau ideal being thus imagined for the general effect, the details are easily made out; either by copying precedents, or by devising original compositions from the data afforded by existing buildings, or engravings of those which have been destroyed. To embody Mr. Gregory's ideas in such detail as to fit them for the practical builder, he employed Mr. Salvin, whose talents as an architect are well known, and whose designs for the new manor-house at Harlaxton have, with a few alterations, been adopted and acted on.
