Modern discoveries by Michaelis regarding the statue of Minerva would show that it was of stupendous dimensions, and covered with ivory and gold; the light coming from above, and relieving it from the dark shades of the portico behind. We have nothing now to compare this with, or anything indeed to enable us to form a comparison by. The effect must not only have been striking, but in the refraction of light in the latitude of Athens, conditions would exist that differ essentially from any we could reproduce here. The architecture of England is essentially its own, it is capable of adaptation to every known requirement, and many more. Leaving fortifications and cathedrals on one side as exceptional, there is often a great wealth of beauty in the most unpretending domestic buildings, that would lighten up a street or landscape, and if imitated would prove attractive to a tenant. [Illustration: STAIRCASE IN AUTHOR’S RESIDENCE, CHESTER.] _Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_. FOOTNOTES: [1] Woody. [2] See page 45. [3] See page 169. [4] Thorpe’s name is not mentioned in Britton’s list of old architects, though Vertue and Hylmer, who were almost contemporaneous, are found in it. [5] The rectory stands on the banks of the Thames, and is a very noble residence. [6] Paper read by the Rev. E. Trollope, F.S.A., before the Leicestershire Architectural and Archæological Society, and republished in the _Building News_, February 5, 1864. [7] _Lysons._ _Macaulay._ _Collins’ series._ [8] The Grosvenor Bridge in Chester, 200 feet in the clear, is the largest stone span in England, and it will probably remain so, as iron is so very much more economical for a constructive material where great spaces have to be spanned. [9] The monument to Bishop Fulford, in Montreal Cathedral Yard, is, as nearly as the materials at hand admitted, such a copy, and it is a very excellent imitation of a Waltham Cross. [10] After standing 230 years the chapel fell down through the stone disintegrating, but the church it was attached to still stands. [11] _Hints for Sketching in Water-Colour from Nature._ Winsor and Newton. Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: singular pasages=> singular passages {pg 7} OUTHOUSE: NELL GWYNNE’S BIRTHPLACE, HEREFORD=> OUTHOUSE: NELL GWYNN’S BIRTHPLACE, HEREFORD {pg 66} End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ancient Streets and Homesteads of England, by Alfred Rimmer