One notable result of the change was the dividing of house design into two streams: one academic and stately, the other traditional and homely. The one dealt with great mansions and public buildings, and was guided by men of eminence, who studied architecture as a fine art. The other dealt with the smaller houses, with schools, almshouses, and other buildings of less importance, and was guided by men of no especial culture, who probably underwent no more training than could be obtained in a builder’s yard. Hence in out-of-the-way places houses may be found dated in the early years of the eighteenth century closely resembling those built in the early years of the seventeenth. But gradually the early traditions died out; the new classic manner permeated the whole of the building world, and even the smallest houses, so far as they had any pretensions to design at all, complied with the prevailing classic taste. In the larger buildings there was a tendency to become more and more academic, to design more and more according to rule. Men of genius, like Inigo Jones and Wren, bent these rules to their own purposes; but their successors of the eighteenth century found it easier to let the rules have the mastery, with the result that much of their work is tame and insipid. At the same time they pursued architecture in the abstract, without due regard for its application to house design. The consequence was that most of their efforts, although striking as architectural compositions, are inconvenient as dwelling-houses. This point will be more fully dealt with in its chronological order, meantime we must return on our steps and take up the story where it was left at the close of the reign of James I. [Illustration: 147. Plan of Raynham Park, Norfolk (_cir._ 1630–36).] [Illustration: 148. Raynham Park, Norfolk, The West Front.] [Illustration: 149. Plan of Coleshill, Berkshire (1650).]