Chav. III. FLORID ENGLISH OR TUDOR.

183
t);e pt'iioti, at Ttwiusburtj, the cliolr. At Ehj Cuthcdral, St. Mary's Chiij,il. Ci jijIiiikI
fn-adt in Lincohishiie. Beverlei/ Minster in Yorkshire. Clutpd uf
Maydukti Collvye, t)\i'orcl.
FAon Ctilltrje Chapel, Bucks. C/uipel on t/ie Brulge at JI'akeJ!eld in Yoik.shire, built by
]>(i\vard IV'. in memory of his father Edward Duke of York; and the Beanchamp Cliapul
It Warwick. In parocliial churches, for tlie early part of the period, examples may be
referred to at Grantham, Lincolnshire. Attdhoriniyk, Norfolk. Higham Ferrers. North-
umptonshire. St. Michael, Coventry. Truro, Cornwall. Witney, Oxfordshire. StratJhrU-
I'pon-Avon, Warwickshire. 5^ Ptter Mtntcroft, Norwich. Boston, Lincolnshire
;
its re.
markable lantern tower, which is -262 ft. high, was begun in 1:509, and was in progress
of execution during the wliole reign of Edward III. The expense of it having been
cliieHy defrayed by the mercliants of the Hazise Towns. St. Mary, Edmunds Bury, Suffolk.
Maidstone, Kent ; and Ludlow, Salop. For the later part of the period, St. Mary Overy,
.Southwark. Thaxted and Saffron Walden, Essex. Loicth and Stamford, Lincolnshire.
(''amp'len, Gloucestershire. St, Mary RedcUff and the tower
of
St. Stephen, Bristol.
Tuvnton and Churton Mendip, Somersetshire. Lavenham, Suffolk. Manchester Cotlec/e.
St. Mary's, Oxford. IVhittlesea, Cambridgesiiire. Wakejield, Yorkshire. Duuc<ister,
Yorkshire. Newark-upon- Trent. 7/et7;/^<OH, Lincolnshire. Moidd Gresford and Wrex-
Idani in Flintshire. Meltun lilotvhray, Leicestershire. Uctanyular towers
of
St. ]\Liryaret's,
Norwich, and Jtl Saints, York.
Sk( r. V.
tl.OKII) KNf.l.lSII Oil Tt;noii SIVl.K.
li"-'.
"
Tiiere is," as Dr. Henry observes,
"
a certain perfection in art to which Ijummii
genius may aspire with success, but beyond which, it is the apprehension of luany, that
improvement degenerates into false taste and fantastic refinement. The rude simplicit\ of
Saxon architecture was (ultimately) supplanted by the magnificence of the ornamental
Gothic; but magnificence itself is at last exhausted, and it terminated during the ))resent
period in a style, which some, with an allusion to literature, denominate 'the Fh)rid.' It
is a style censurable as too ornamental, departing froin the grandeur peculiar to the Gothic,
without ac([uiring proportional elegance
;
yet its intricate and redundant decorations are
well calculated to rivet tlie eye, and amaze, perhaps bewilder, the mind." The |)eriod of
tlie style is from 1460, to the dissolution of the religious houses in 15:57, and c(im))reliends,
therefore, the reigns of Edward IV. and V., Richard III., Henrys VII. and VIII.
423. The ecclesiastical buildings of this sera are ftiw. Somersetshire, a county devoted
to the cause of the House of Lancaster, from the gratitude or policy of Henry VI I., l)oasts
perhajis inore churches than any other county in the florid style ;
still they are very few,
and the sui)crb chapel which that monarch erected at ^^'estminster is the best specimen
tiiat can be adduced for giving the reader a proper and correct idea of the Florid or Tudor
style. There is doubtless an abundance of examples in oratories, porches, and small
chapels, sepulchral sacella and the like
;
but beyond them we could cite very few entire
sacred buildings
; and those will be hereafter appended to this section as in the preceding
ones. In civil, or rather domestic architecture, the case was far different : a very great
change took place
; and we shall endeavour to place a succinct account of it from the Rev.
i\Ir. Dallaway's work, to which we iiave alrcatly been much indebted. The fifteenth cen-
tury exhibits to us a number of vast mansions of the noble and opulent, wherein the cha-
racteristic style of the inunediately preceding castles was not entirely abandoned, but
sujierseded and mixed up with a new and peculiar one. 'I he household books of the
nobility which have come to our knowledge, indicate a multitudinous set of servants and
retainers, for the reception of whom a great area of ground must have been covered, and in
which provision, by the number of apartments, was made for a noble display of hos])ita'.ity.
I iiis circumstance, of course, induced a gorgeous style peculiar to the earlier Tudor ivrn, of
most of whose splendid mansions no memorial now exists but in the records of the times.
But for the ]un])ose of bringing a view of the whole subject under the eve of the reader, a
brief reca])ilulation will here be necessary. The tirst palace of the Norman kings was the
Tower of London, which was a strictly military residence. At Westminster was a palace
of William Rufu.s, to whom Westminster Hall owes its original foundation. At Oxford
a palace was built by Henry I., and at that place he kept his Christmas in 111,), as in
I'iL'O and It2()7 Henry III. did in the vicinity at Woodstock. It was at this place that
Henry 11, built a house of retirement, which has furnished the subject of some well-known
legends. Henry III. is said to have refound(Hl the palace at Westminster, which was
much enlarged by Edward III. This, from the time of Rufus, its foimder, to the reign of
Richard II., to whom it owed its completion in the state apartments, with its magnificent
hall and bijou of a chapel ( St. Stephen's), had attained a greater extent than any contem-