ome-like character, not
merely for its own sake, but as a stepping-stone to something better and
more enduring in the future.

Let us now briefly glance at the various constructive systems embraced
in what is to-day known as Queen Anne architecture.

CONSTRUCTION.

In the sudden renaissance of Palladian detail and Dutch planning, known
under the generic title of Queen Anne, we can distinctly trace the
influence of three systems of construction. First in dignity, as in age,
stands the cottage or old English style, claiming descent from the heavy
Tudor mansions of rude stone, rough hewn timber, and white concrete
filling, usually termed "magpie work," from the startling contrast
between their white panels and tarred timbers. Of these old mansions
numerous examples still remain: they were, for the most part, erected
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but in a few instances a
much earlier date may be assigned. Their construction is of the most
substantial character, and consists in great part of oak frame-work of
large scantling, tenoned and pinned together, the spaces between the
timbers being filled in on both sides with a composition of well-beaten
clay, straw, and chalk, which has become almost as hard as stone.
Embedded in this composition are stout oak laths, held in position by
cross-sticks, to which they are bound by hazel withes, no nail being
used in any part of the work. Second, Queen Anne proper, founded on the
domestic architecture of the Netherlands,--a thoroughly appropriate
system of construction for a country where brick is the vernacular
building-material, and one which perhaps of all others is the most
easily adapted to the requirements of city streets, narrow fronts, and
lofty facades with but little projection to interrupt light and the
various needs of traffic. Third, the style without a name, which during
the last decade has gathered to itself a heterogeneous mass of details,
both English and Continental, combined with picturesque groupings of
parts to form a well-defined and pleasing whole. This system may
certainly be called "free," but, as it appears to be simply a
stepping-stone to something better and more in consonance with the rapid
development of art and the sciences applied to domestic life, it might
perhaps be well termed the Victorian Transition.

The originators of modern Queen Anne were men trained in the Gothic
school, and their watchword was "true construction." This te