land and America alike have felt the pulse-beat of
the reformers, ready and longing for a change that will be radical and
honest in its workings. Let us, then, attempt to define the position of
Queen Anne architecture, historically, constructively, and aesthetically.
Let us endeavor to penetrate beyond the superficial investigations of
the "high-art" amateur and see what may be the real value of the Queen
Anne revival as a basis for the architecture of to-day, and wherein lies
the germ which may be utilized as a stepping-stone to greater
excellence.

HISTORY.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate the different phases of Free Classic
will be to group the reigns of William and Anne in one period of a
quarter of a century, half in the seventeenth and half in the
eighteenth, following the Stuart, or Jacobean, and preceding the
Georgian. At first sight there appears to be little promise of finding
any genuine art in English works of this period. The Mediaeval
Ecclesiastical style had died out nearly two hundred years before, and
during the interval the revival of classic architecture had steadily
advanced from small and rude beginnings to a respectable position, with
an academic system, so to speak, which, although it never attained in
England the appreciation which led to its luxurious development on the
Continent, found expression in many works of dignity and excellence.
During the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. a domestic style for
manor-houses had sprung up, based upon Gothic traditions of the Tudor
type, with an admixture of the Renaissance of that day. This
transitional manner struggled through the Commonwealth comparatively
undisturbed, losing by degrees all traces of its mediaeval origin. It
maintained, however, partly perhaps by the intention of its designers,
but chiefly through accident, a character of picturesqueness and
homeliness.

The great fire of 1666 desolated two-thirds of London, destroying
thirteen thousand two hundred houses and eighty-nine churches, including
St. Paul's Cathedral. Down to this time the architecture of London had
been mostly of the timber, brick, and plaster type of the Tudors. The
houses were crowded closely together, covering every available piece of
ground, and overhanging story above story until in many cases the
daylight was almost excluded from the narrow courts and crooked alleys.
Many of these houses were built of slight materials, covered on the
exterior with painted plan