One of the favourite devices of the time for producing a splendid group was to place the principal rooms in a lofty central block, to flank it on either side with a block of subsidiary rooms at some distance, and to connect these outlying wings with the main building by colonnades. As a rule one wing contained the kitchens and the other the stables. Two inconveniences must have followed from this arrangement: the stables were too near the house, the kitchens too far off. Sir Henry Wotton had already uttered a warning against placing the kitchen at a great distance from the dining-room, “or else, besides other inconveniences, perhaps some of the dishes may straggle by the way.” Inigo Jones appears to have been the first to adopt this wide-spreading disposition at Stoke Bruerne in Northamptonshire, a house of which the central block has been burnt down; his successors bettered his example, followed it with frequency, and established a fashion which survived till late in the eighteenth century. In Isaac Ware’s “Complete Body of Architecture,” written for students of the art, and published in 1756, several chapters of the third book are devoted to explaining how a house of this kind should be designed. The author supposes a gentleman with a moderate family to be desirous of building a house in the country “without columns, or other expensive decorations”; handsome, though not pompous. Having selected a site in accordance with principles previously enunciated by Mr Ware, the gentleman asks a builder how much ground the house ought to cover to meet his requirements. The builder at once replies that a 65 ft. frontage will answer the purpose. Although the steps by which this rapid decision is arrived at are not indicated, it seems to be satisfactory as well as inevitable. Sixty-five feet being the correct length of the front, it follows that from 40 to 45 ft. must be the depth. The intention being to achieve something handsome (though not pompous), the kitchen is not to be put under the parlour, nor the stable in the corner of the yard: “a bricklayer could do that.” These offices are to be placed in detached wings, “so that from a plain design, such as the vulgar builder would have proposed, here shall arise, with little more expense, a centre, its wings, and their communication.” The position of the detached wings is next to be settled. In order to be proportionate with a centre of 65 ft. frontage, it would appear that the wings should start 28 ft. away to the right and left; as to their distance frontwards from the centre, the author is not so certain, but he advises 13 ft. Then comes the actual size of the wings, which must correspond exactly with one another, although one is to contain the kitchen and the other the stables. The best measure in proportion to the 65 ft. is 35: accordingly that is to be the length of the front of each wing. As to their depth, “for a house of this bigness and design, 48 ft. will be a good measure.” The size of the