ABSTRACT
The observation of vernacular cottages, rocks and ruins in the English countryside by the theorists and connoisseurs of the Picturesque had a profound influence on English architecture in general and on cottage design in particular. The front elevation presents an articulation of leaded casement windows that defiantly challenges neoclassicism with irregular spacing and different sizes and heights with an entrance to the far right. In the mid-nineteenth century, the vernacular was re-imagined again in the estate architecture of George Devey. Blaise Hamlet is a standard waypoint marked Picturesque/early nineteenth century for architectural history surveys but it was equally well known and celebrated when first built. As Aikin concedes, neoclassicists like Elsam and Plaw could not halt the rapid change in architectural tastes in the decades that followed Malton's Essay on British Cottage Architecture. Moreover, Elsam argues that while it is wholly virtuous to dwell in a cottage inspired by the imagined pastoral cots of Arcadia.
