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  The Italian architecture began to force itself into this country in the
reign
of Henry the Eighth.       The first indication   of the cinque-cento style
in
England is in the tomb of Henry the Seventh, designed by Torregianio, an
Italian artist. "It has been the fate of every invention of the human
mind
which depends on taste," says an excellent modern author, "to be
cherished
at first as a novelty, to be pursued for a time ardently to the exclusion
of
all other modes, to be cultivated till it has acquired all the embellishment
of
which it seems capable, and then to be abandoned for some new form.
This, in its turn, passes through     the different stages of refinement,
and
finally gives place either to a third mode, or to some modification of those
which preceded it.     Such has been the case with the Greek architecture,
which, having been overloaded with ornament by the Romans, gave way to
the more simple 'style employed by the Saxons or Normans: from        this
arose
the florid Gothic, which, when it admitted no further enrichment, ceased
to
be the prevailing taste of the age, and gave way once more to the chaster
styles of Greece and Rome."       Every change, however, from     one
mode or
style to another, must be effected by degrees, so that a bastard style of
art
is the consequence; and however desirable the change, and important the
result, an intermediate period, apparently characterised by an extreme destitu-
tion of taste, invariably precedes.
   The progress of the Italian architecture in this country was very rapid;
but, fortunately for us, it did not obtain a hold upon those who regulated
the architectural taste of the nation, for more than a century after it had
been practised on the continent; and during that period some of our most
elegant ecclesiastical structures were erected  or finished.   This revival
of
classical architecture happened in Italy, during the fifteenth century; and
on
this account, strangely enough, the style is called Cinque-cento, a word
which
signifies five hundred, an abbreviation, as we imagine, of fifteen hundred.
   The error committed in Italy in the attempt that was made to revive the
classical style, consisted in an exclusive devotion to the dogmas and propor-
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