three blocks being thus settled on these somewhat arbitrary lines, the architect is to proceed to the construction and distribution of the rooms, bearing in mind that it is “always best to accommodate the inner distribution of a house to the outer aspect when that can conveniently be done.” But as the author admits that tastes may vary and occasions alter the choice, he proceeds in different chapters to set forth different ways in which his spaces may be divided up into rooms. Into these details we need not enter, but it is evident that the gentleman with the moderate family would have to keep his personal predilections as to aspect, prospect, the relation of rooms one to the other, and other matters incidental to comfort, strictly in subjection, in order not to conflict with the proportions and outlines laid down by his architect. The study of architecture as an art governed by rules and founded on proportion has carried us a long way from mediæval methods, which led to rooms being placed where they were wanted without regard to regularity of appearance; and almost as far from the ways of the Elizabethan designer, who contrived to get the requisite accommodation in its traditional relationship within his symmetrical outline. The former subordinated appearance to convenience; the latter regarded them as of equal importance; the eighteenth-century preceptor made convenience bow to his duly proportioned outline. [Illustration: 158. Plan and Elevation of a House. _From Isaac Ware’s “Complete Body of Architecture”_ (1756).] Mr Ware gives a plan and elevation of his design (Fig. 158), but with the wings rather more distant from the house than he at first suggested. The left-hand block contains the kitchens, the right-hand the stables. Of the six ground-floor windows in the outlying blocks, the exigencies of internal arrangement require that four should be shams, although they are in the forefront of his architectural composition; and it is probable that some of the upper windows followed suit. The route from the kitchen to the dining-room lies across a lobby, a room, and 50 ft. of open arcade before it arrives at the outer wall of the central house wherein the dining-room is situated. When these and other inconveniences are borne in mind, it is manifest that such principles of design could have no lasting vitality. [Illustration: 159. Plan and Elevation of a House. _From Kent’s “Designs of Inigo Jones.”_]