Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
3
Post-Restoration
to the Georgian
Period (1660-1714)
Introduction
This period was brimming with fundamental changes in architectural styles and
craft practices that had a tremendous effect on the influential city designers
and bricklayers; stamping forever an indelible character on English brickwork.
With it came the prolific use of a new, Dutch influenced, class of post-fired
worked brickwork, prepared by first rubbing the bed and the stretcher and
header faces of each brick flat and at right angles to each other prior to cut-
moulding the faces to the desired profile. This enabled the work to be set, with
narrow mortar joints, where it is impossible to adjust the bedding of an irregu-
lar shaped brick to present a plumb face, to precise standards of accuracy, and
neatness hitherto unknown. This class of brickwork quickly became known as
'gauged work'.
Commercially and politically, England was well acquainted with her wealthy
and influential Dutch neighbour, as Kuyper (1980, 210) records:
For the seventeenth century Londoner, it was easier to travel from England to
Holland than it was to visit Lincolnshire or Cornwall: even in 1700 it was easier
for a London merchant to send a letter to a correspondent in Amsterdam than to
a customer in Hull.
During the Interregnum, many aristocrats, members of the Royal Court, and
their extensive Royalist entourage, were exiled to Europe. A large number
spent time in the Netherlands, including King Charles II, who stayed at the
Mauritshuis in The Hague on the eve of his return to England. At the highest
level, therefore, this country was very alert to anything of note taking place in
the economic and cultural circles of the Netherlands, and, in particular, the
hugely rich and influential city of Amsterdam.
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