though confessedly far from
perfect when applied to domestic buildings. For these latter edifices
the old manor-houses, with their many mullioned windows and Tudor
arcuation, formed the basis for design, and machicoli, turrets, and open
timber roofs became the fashion for country-houses; but the city
dwellings were erected in a style that was a compromise between the
Georgian and the semi-Gothic, the most difficult problem being to
reconcile the double hung sash with the pointed arches of mediaeval
precedent.

English architecture was in this uncertain and transitory state when, in
1870, Parliament passed the Elementary Education Act. This was an
opportunity long waited for, and the architects seized upon it with
avidity. The natural desire was to give to the school-buildings a
character distinctively their own, simple in plan and construction, with
but little architectural display, and built of the vernacular
constructive material of English cities,--red brick. Moulded brick could
now be procured in abundance, the tax having been removed by Parliament
in 1850. Such was the beginning of modern Queen Anne architecture. From
small beginnings it has developed into an harmonious and well-defined
system of domestic building, very different in its better phases from
the stiff and starched appearance of its prototypes, being marked by
breadth and freedom of treatment, and in many cases by great richness of
detail.

The architects of the United States soon caught the enthusiasm of their
English brethren, and the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 served to
intensify the feeling of patriotism. If Queen Anne architecture is dear
to Englishmen, it should be doubly so to us. In England the history of
building may be traced back for centuries, style following style in
regular sequence, one growing out of and interwoven with another. With
us the case is different. The early colonists landed in America when
Jacobean architecture was at its best, but they could give little
thought to style or detail. Protection from the elements and savage foes
was their first requirement. Later, when they could give more attention
to architecture as an art, Queen Anne ruled the popular taste, and our
colonial mansions were built and decorated under the influence which
surrounded the thought and literature of the time. Queen Anne or early
Georgian is, therefore, our starting-point in architectural history. It
is well to revive a taste for its quaint and h