Early Renaissance Architecture in England: A Historical & Descriptive Account of the Tudor, Elizabethan, & Jacobean Periods, 1500-1625Gotch, J. Alfred (John Alfred)
History
Early Renaissance Architecture in England: A Historical & Descriptive Account of the Tudor, Elizabethan, & Jacobean Periods, 1500-1625
Of all this beautiful work nothing has survived, except a painted panel
or two preserved at Loseley, in Surrey, and possibly other fragments in
other houses of the district. According to a statement of John Aubrey,
the antiquary, some of the materials of Nonesuch went to the building
of The Durdans near Epsom. Evelyn calls it a Gothic building, and we
shall probably not be far wrong in placing it in the same category
as other buildings of the time--English in conception, but adorned
with foreign ornament, which in this case was of greater extent and
better workmanship than that on any other contemporary house. It seems
clear, however, that the work, important as it was, did not have any
permanent effect upon English architecture. It was the culmination
of the Italian movement prevalent throughout Henry VIII.'s reign;
after his death, and before the newness of Nonesuch had worn off, the
Italian influence gave way to the Dutch. Nonesuch was a large building,
especially after Lord Lumley had added the second court; but it would
seem that Henry VIII. actually built but one court, measuring 116 feet
long by 137 feet wide.[7] Hampton Court had four large courts besides
half-a-dozen smaller ones; the largest or Base Court, measuring 167
feet by 142 feet, still remains; so also do the Clock Court, measuring
160 feet by 91 feet, and the Chapel Court; the fourth, measuring 116
feet by 108 feet, has given way to Wren's buildings. Hampton Court,
therefore, stood without a rival in point of size, but Nonesuch was
more magnificently decorated, and we can but echo Evelyn's lament
that the beautiful panels were "not taken out and preserv'd in
some drie place."
[7] _Archæologia_, Vol. V., p. 429.
[Illustration: 29.--LACOCK ABBEY, WILTSHIRE. TOWER AT SOUTH-EAST
CORNER (BETWEEN 1540 AND 1553).]
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