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   In the reign of James the First the mixed style which prevailed in the
time of Elizabeth was practised, but with a greater proportion of Italian
ornament.   In the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge many examples of this
style still remain.
  Thorpe was the architect chiefly employed in the erection and decoration
of the palatial buildings in the reigns of Elizabeth and James; and he, like
all other artists of the period, was infatuated by a desire for the introduction
of the Italian style. Walpole, speaking of his works, says that his ornaments
were barbarous, but that he was skilful in the disposition of apartments,
and allowed in all his plans an ample space for halls, staircases, and
chambers of state.    Inigo Jones, however, did more than any other artist
to exclude the national architecture of England, and introduce the unmixed
Italian.  He has been called the English Palladio, and is entitled to all
the
honour that designation can give.    This artist, it appears, received an
invita-
tion to the court of Denmark when studying painting at Venice, where he
acquired a love for Palladian architecture; and, having accepted the invitation,
was appointed architect to Christian the Fourth.    He was afterwards brought
by circumstances into England at the commencement of the reign of James
the First, and was made architect to the queen and the prince of Wales.
Upon the death    of the prince he visited    Italy, probably from  a want
of
practice, where he remained until he received his appointment of surveyor-
general.   Among the principal works of this architect must be mentioned
the banqueting house at Whitehall, which was part of a royal palace he
had  designed.   This structure has been     appropriately spoken of as "an
epitome of many of the faults and most of the beauties of the Palladian
school.   It rises boldly from  the ground with a broad, simple, and nearly
continuous basement, or stereobate, and the various compartments of its
principal front are beautifully proportioned; but the circular pediments
to
the windows, the attached unfluted columns, with broken entablatures andi'
stylobates, the attic and balustrade, though they be the materials of the
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