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  In the reign of Henry the Eighth a style of architecture was adopted not
unsuited to even the wants of the present refined age; and to the edifices
which are left we must look for models, contented to take from them our
impressions of the requirements and capabilities of that peculiar method
of
building and decoration.   In all the architectural remains of this reign,
we
may trace the intermixture of Florentine taste, which may be easily accounted
for, by the encouragement given to Italian artists, who, retaining a fondness
for their native architecture, gave it a decided predominance in the reign
of
Elizabeth, and so far introduced it as a fashion, that the debased Roman
architecture of the middle ages was revived in the time of James the First.
Until the Elizabethan age, as it would appear from Harrison, the houses of
the wealthy were almost entirely built of timber, for the framing of which
the carpenters of this country were preferred to those of other nations.
But in his time it became customary to build of brick or stone, and
their style, he informs us, was " so magnificent and statelie, as the
basest
house of a baron dooth often match in our daies with some honours of
princes in old times."
   " Such palaces as King Henry the Eighth erected after his own device,"
says the same writer, "do represente another kind of patterne, which,
as
they are supposed to excell all the rest that he found standinge in this
realme, so they are, and shall be, a perpetual precedent unto those that
do
come after to follow in their workes and buildinges of importance. Certes,
masonrie did never better flourish in England than in his time."
   Among the specimens of the architecture of Henry the Eighth, we may
especially mention Hampton Court.      But we may also refer to a mansion
erected by Sir Anthony Browne, who held several offices under that monarch,
at Midhurst in Sussex, which is so well described by Warton, that we
cannot do better than quote his words.
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