Although for the purpose of this work it is necessary to say somewhat of the houses of the period, it is not worth while discussing the so-called revival of the architecture of Queen Anne's time. The modern houses are quaint and pretty, but they are innocent of any close connection with her reign. Artists' and architects' holiday rambles in Holland are provocative of most of them; 'sweet little bits' having been brought home in sketch-books from Dordrecht and kindred happy hunting-grounds for the picturesque. The style was not even adopted for mansions--_vide_ Marlborough House and Blenheim; and the exterior of the ordinary town houses, even of the better class, was singularly unpretentious. Hatton[73] is struck with admiration of Queen Square (now Queen Anne's Gate), and says it is 'a beautiful New (tho' small) Square, of very fine Buildings.' If he could thus eulogise its architecture, what must have been the plainness of the exterior of ordinary houses! It was not that there was a lack of good architects, for Wren and Vanbrugh were alive, but the houses and furniture were in conformity with the spirit of the times--very dull, and plain, and solid. We must never forget that during nearly the whole of this queen's reign a cruel war exhausted the people's finances, that trade was circumscribed, and that there were no mushroom _parvenus_, with inflated fortunes made from shoddy or the Stock Exchange, to spend their wealth lavishly on architecture or art in any shape. [Footnote 73: _A New View of London_, 1708.] A dull mediocrity in thought and feeling prevailed, and if any originality in architecture was attempted, it would certainly have been satirised, as it was in the very little-known poem of 'The History of Vanbrugh's House.'[74] [Footnote 74: See _Meditations upon a Broomstick and Somewhat Beside_, Swift, ed. 1710.] When Mother Clud[75] had rose from Play, And call'd to take the Cards away; VAN Saw, but seem'd not to regard, How MISS pickt ev'ry Painted Card; And Busie both with Hand and Eye, Soon Rear'd a House two Story high; VAN's _Genius_ without Thought or Lecture, This hugely turn'd to _Architecture_. He view'd the Edifice, and smil'd, Vow'd it was pretty for a Child; It was so perfect in its Kind, He kept the _Model_ in his Mind.