ch buildings by variety in the forms of roofs, balconies, etc.

The urgent demand for new edifices to replace those destroyed by fire,
and the necessity for observing strict economy in their erection,
precluded picturesque grouping and well-studied designs. The quaint but
dangerous architecture of 1666 was rapidly replaced by rows of plain,
monotonous brick buildings, devoid of artistic merit. In Cheapside and
some of the more important thoroughfares the houses erected during this
period were of a somewhat better character, taller, and more elegant in
design.

While improvement in the character of domestic architecture was thus
hampered by economic considerations and an intricate system of
land-tenures, public and ecclesiastical architecture was greatly
improved. The rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral and fifty city churches
by Sir Christopher Wren marks an epoch in the history of the English
Church which should not be overlooked. For the first time since the
Reformation the planning and general features of church edifices were
made to conform to the exigencies of the Protestant faith and a
simplified ritual. Rarely has such an opportunity for distinction been
vouchsafed to any architect as that which fell to the lot of Wren; and
he proved himself equal to the task. Fergusson is my authority for the
statement that during the last forty years of the seventeenth century no
building of importance was erected of which he was not the architect.
Had his design for a complete rebuilding of the burnt district been
carried out, London would have risen from its ashes one of the most
convenient and beautiful cities in the world. The edifices erected by
Wren are models of their kind. A thorough constructor, he was not less
an artist in his feelings, and boldly adapted the systems of the
Renaissance to the requirements of the times, modifying his details to
meet the exigencies which arose. The "Free Classic" of Wren was
certainly very different in conception and execution from the stiff and
formal expression which we note in the works of his immediate
successors, several of whom were, however, men of marked ability. It
was, moreover, immeasurably superior to the classic attempts of the
architects of the middle Georgian period, who, carried away by the
enthusiasm awakened by the perusal of the newly-published "Antiquities"
of Stuart and Revett, attempted to adapt Doric porticos, hexastyle,
octostyle, etc., to modern domestic archite