the protector Somerset. Jerome de Trevisi is also
mentioned; and it is said that the designs for Longleat and a model of
Audley End were obtained from Italy. The last circumstance is altogether
extraordinary; this was the very best period of Italian architecture,
and it seems highly improbable that semi-barbarous designs should
proceed from the country of Palladio and Vignola. Thorpe, Smithson, and
other Englishmen, were also eminent builders; and probably these persons
might have travelled, and thus have gained the imperfect knowledge of
Grecian architecture which appears in their works. They were immediately
followed by Inigo Jones, who formed his style particularly on the works
of Palladio, and became the founder of classic architecture in this
country.

There is a remarkable and beautiful analogy between the progress of
Grecian and Gothic architecture, in both of which we find, that while
the powers of decoration were extended, the process of construction was
improved and simplified. Thus the Doric, the primitive order, is full of
difficulties in its arrangement, which render it only applicable to
simple plans and to buildings where the internal distribution is of
inferior consequence. The Ionic, though more ornamental, is by the
suppression of the divisions in the frieze so simplified as to be
readily applicable to more complicated arrangements: still the capital
presents difficulties from the dissimilarity of the front and sides;
which objection is finally obviated by the introduction of that rich and
exquisite composition, the Corinthian capital. Thus is obtained an order
of the most elegant and ornamented character, but possessing a happy
simplicity and regularity of composition which renders it more easy of
application than any other. In like manner in the later, which has been
called the florid style of Gothic architecture, there are buildings
astonishingly rich and elaborate; but we find this excess of ornament
supported and rendered practicable by a principle of simplicity in
design and construction. In the earlier and middle styles of Gothic
there are various difficulties of execution and some faults of
composition: such as the slender detached shafts, the richly carved
capitals, the flowing and varied tracery of windows, and that profuse
variety in detail which frequently causes all the windows, capitals,
buttresses and pinnacles of the same buildings to differ from one
another. But the later style has mor