photographed, and published by Edward A. Crane and E. E.
Soderholtz, Boston Architectural Club, Boston. 50 plates, 11 x 14.
$12.50.

How much the revival of the classic influence of the early colonial and
the immediately succeeding period is going to prevail in the
establishment of a distinctive American style of architecture it is now
difficult or indeed impossible to determine; but at all events the
reaction from the Queen Anne vagaries of ten years ago to the more
severe mass and chaste detail of the recent so-called colonial houses is
a step in the right direction, and we have much to be thankful for in
the improvement which this tendency has wrought in our recent domestic
architecture. Beautiful and admirable as some of the recent examples of
this work are, very few show the subtle appreciation of design to be
found in many of the older buildings which until the last year or two
have been looked upon as merely the outgrown and cast-off work of an age
much less refined than our own.

With the very general adoption of this style there has been an
increased interest in the few remaining fine old examples which are
scattered over the Eastern and Middle States, and the best of these are
now familiar to architects.

Few, however, know anything of the development of this style in the
Southern States, and the work now before us will be a revelation to
those who have not visited the neighborhood of Charleston and Savannah.

A large proportion of the plates is devoted to Charleston, which owes
its wealth and in fact the greater part of its existence to the
prosperous planters of former days, who made the city a winter resort.

The most notable house illustrated in the work is the William Bull
Pringle house, built by Miles Brewton in 1760. It has long been famous
as one of the finest houses in the country. Josiah Quincy, who was
entertained by its first owner, speaks in enthusiastic terms of its
beauty and the charm of its surroundings. Fourteen plates are devoted to
illustrating its various features. The two-story portico with a Doric
order below and Ionic above, relieved against the brick front laid in
Flemish bond, the simple but well-designed iron fence, flanked on either
side by a wall with massive brick posts covered with plaster, and all
overgrown with a tangle of foliage, make up a fascinating picture. The
view of the side gateway and a group of darky boys is wonderfully
picturesque, besides being very suggestive