We allude not only to the pure Elizabethan, but even to
the strange mixtures of classical ornaments with Gothic forms, which we
find prevailing in the sixteenth century. In the most simple form, we
have a building extending round three sides of a court, and, in the
larger halls, round several interior courts, terminating in sharply
gabled fronts, with broad oriels, divided into very narrow lights by
channeled mullions, without decoration of any kind; the roof relieved by
projecting dormer windows, whose lights are generally divided into
three, terminating in very flat arches without cusps, the intermediate
edge of the roof being battlemented. Then we find wreaths of ornament
introduced at the base of the oriels;[27] ranges of short columns, the
base of one upon the capital of another, running up beside them; the
bases being very tall, sometimes decorated with knots of flower-work;
the columns usually fluted,--wreathed, in richer examples, with
ornament. The entrance is frequently formed by double ranges of those
short columns, with intermediate arches, with shell canopies, and rich
crests above.[28] This portico is carried up to some height above the
roof, which is charged with an infinite variety of decorated chimneys.
[Footnote 27: As in a beautiful example in Brasenose College, Oxford.
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