ABSTRACT
The reception of Baroque sensibilities in Britain is difficult to interpret, complicated as
it was by an attendant antipathy towards the Counter-Reformation. Nevertheless,
profound changes occurred and the culture was sufficiently permeated by multi-
faceted ideas to form a foundation for the onset of the ‘Enlightenment’. A persistent
Baroque meme1 involves dismemberment, independent study of parts then
reassembly of wholes, and in this process ambiguity and juxtapositions find room.2
The ancients’ intuitive grasp and animist feeling for whole building structures was
