the period. The bricks are in nearly every instance laid
up with the Flemish bond. The gable-ends are stepped, as in the
Netherlands; string-moulds and base-courses made of moulded bricks of
good section are often met with; while the whole character and aspect of
their facades are in unison with the conservatism and early training of
the mechanics who erected them. This conservatism and respect for the
ways of their predecessors still exert a powerful influence upon the
building-industries of Philadelphia. The masons of that city still cling
with reverence to the Flemish system of bonding,--the strongest known to
the bricklayer. The planning of the dwelling-houses is different, so far
as I am conversant with them, from the system in vogue in any other
American city. The varied levels of floors in the "front" and "back"
buildings has been tenaciously adhered to by the designers of each
generation. This variety in levels gives a rambling, homely effect which
is very pleasing, and which is capable of being developed into the
highest expression of domestic convenience and artistic elegance of
which our modern Queen Anne is capable.

Of the public buildings, Christ Church, St. Peter's Church, Independence
Hall, Carpenters' Hall, and some others, represent, I think, the best
type of Queen Anne or Georgian architecture to be met with in colonial
work. Their designers seem to have been thoroughly in earnest, and the
details are marked by conscientious adherence to the established
precedents of the time. It was this thorough knowledge of precedent as
applied to mass and detail which enabled their designers to grasp boldly
the problems before them, and, while not departing from the academic
system in which they had been trained, to infuse into each separate
building which they erected a dignity and an individuality of its own.

AESTHETIC QUALITIES.

Having thus followed Queen Anne architecture through the various phases
of its development, it remains only to refer to its claim to artistic
excellence, and answer, if possible, the question frequently asked: Is
Queen Anne "high art"?

As a basis for the discussion of so intricate a subject, I will first
endeavor to establish the underlying principles of good architecture,
using the word style in its broadest sense, expressive of elegance,
fitness, and artistic truth,--style proper and style as defined by the
antiquarian being two distinct things. It has been argued, and with so