n the churches it can be seen in the earlier
parts making a very pretty wall with its thin horizontal lines. The
tower of the church of All Saints shows it to great advantage.

Another stone is also employed, and one far better suited for
building, because it can be obtained in blocks of almost any size, and
carved with the utmost delicacy. This is oolite, the stone of which
the Bell Tower is built. From Norman times it was used in the more
important parts of the Abbey, as is shown in the foundations of the
great tower now exposed to view, and in Abbot Reginald's gateway. But
the oolite stone could not be got much nearer than Broadway, and what
was used by the monks in all probability came from the hill above
that village. In numerous old houses this stone is made use of, but in
almost all it must have come indirectly, having once formed part of
the structure of the monastic buildings, or perhaps of the castle
which for a short time flanked the bridge on the Bengeworth side of
the river.

In the seventeenth century bricks came into fashion, and good clay for
their manufacture was amply provided by the neighbourhood. To the end
of the century belongs Dresden House in High Street, a fine example of
the style of William the Third's time, built by a wealthy lawyer, who
came to settle here, from the northern part of the county. Tower House
in Bridge Street, probably of later date, is beautiful in its
proportions and mouldings, the prominent lead spouts adding much to
the general design. Unfortunately to this fashion for formality and
brick-work, at a later period superseded by a covering of plaster, we
must attribute the demolition of the older fronts, generally of
timber, and often gabled and projecting, which gave such a pleasant
irregularity to our old streets. Though formal and lacking in artistic
qualities these Georgian screens have a certain historical value in
showing that our little town was prosperous through the century, and
able to support a decided air of respectability. But not without
reason do we deplore the change.

The eighteenth century saw the beginning of the great development of
machinery, and in these Georgian house fronts, the productions of a
mechanical age, we see the deterioration of popular architecture.
Every line is rigid and without human feeling: the style, where any
exists, is exotic, not national or local; classical, not vernacular.
It is a learned importation, not a popular growth. The m