Houses that depended upon dormers for their controlling architectural idea were common in the seventeenth century. The front wall is usually only one storey high and the dormers rise from it at the line of the eaves. When the frontage is wide and the building long and low, as is the case at Kampen (page 59), these features--shaped and carved and fundamentally valuable in lighting the rooms of the roof--show with good effect. A smaller house in the same town, given on page 58, has a single dormer only. It contributes the necessary interest to what would otherwise be a very dull effort of building. On the frieze at its base is a carved stone representation of the Nativity, while below appears the inscription "IN BETHLEHEM 1631." Those principles that imparted to the domestic architecture of Holland its picturesqueness, and so gave to it its most valued possession, were strained to the uttermost as the freshness of the Transitional style declined. The influences bequeathed from former ages were running out. Extreme freedom of design, although showing certain originality and character, was not accompanied by necessary restraint. Architects sometimes cast aside all the limitations of their art and gave themselves up to unreasonable over-elaboration and the grotesque; they ignored the fact--true for all time--that construction must form the basis for ornamental detail. But it must not be thought that this was always so. There is, however, certain work of this period that cannot seriously be accepted as good. Brickwork and stone continued to be employed and were still associated with excellent workmanship, as was the carpentry. There was evidently yet, as the many dated buildings prove, a large body of men who had complete mastery of their particular crafts, men versed in that traditional skill which had come down unbrokenly from mediæval days. Prominence was given to the numerous door and window openings, which were heavily moulded and often surmounted by pediments. Gables were shaped in endless ways and upon them almost every conceivable combination of curves was employed. Pilasters and cornices, swags and festoons, with strap ornament, scrolls and ornate iron wall-ties, all generally of debased Renaissance character, contributed to the rich profusion.