Cities and towns -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- History, Local; Great Britain -- Social conditions; Villages -- Great Britain
4. But though the churches were much out of repair, in some of them
stately and costly =monuments= were erected in the sixteenth and
early part of the seventeenth centuries. They were different from the
monuments set up before the Reformation, and were usually built against
a wall. They were of various coloured marbles, the effigies lying under
circular-headed canopies, supported by columns in the Italian style.
The effigies of man and wife were usually represented clad in robes
of state, coloured, their children kneeling round the tomb in various
attitudes.
5. By and by, instead of the effigies being represented as lying on
their backs, with hands clasped, they were shown lying on one side,
supporting their heads on their hands. There are many such monuments in
Westminster Abbey, and in almost every old town church one or more can
be seen.
6. It became a very common practice for one of the old =chapels=, built
on to the parish church, to be set apart as the private burial-place
of a great land-owner. Many new chapels were built for this special
purpose. In them we may see specimens of the different fashions in
monuments from Tudor days, or earlier, right down to the present time.
=Summary.=--Much was destroyed in the churches during the violent
changes made in the form of worship. In some cases the churches
were let go to decay, so that there might be no church to go to.
There were secret chambers built in many Tudor houses, where those
in danger might hide.
It was a great time for setting up splendid monuments in the
Italian style, usually brilliantly coloured and ornamented.
CHAPTER XLIII
BUILDING AFTER THE RESTORATION: HOUSES
1. The most notable architect after the Great Fire of London was Sir
Christopher Wren, and his master-piece is, of course, St. Paul's
Cathedral. He designed, too, most of the city churches. The style
was adopted in various parts of the country by various noblemen for
building great houses. Brick was regarded as too mean a material for
such very grand houses, and stone was used for facing them.
[Illustration: Photo. Valentine
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, LONDON: SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN'S MASTERPIECE
(page 169)]
2. In the houses which Wren built brick was very largely used. He
introduced rubbed bricks, and had them laid with very close joints. We
have some very fine examples of such brickwork in gables of various
forms in the early part of the eighteenth century--the reign of Queen
Anne.
3. Designs for houses did not improve in beauty as the eighteenth
century went on. Many of the houses were very substantially built,
and were arranged with an eye to comfort and convenience. The hall,
which had been the centre of the old English home, became smaller and
smaller; the kitchens were placed below the ground-level, and in towns
were often reached by a flight of steps down from the street to the
=area=, which is still so common in London streets.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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