ABSTRACT
THE architecture of the country as a whole has been greatly affected time and again by that of the Continent; most notably on two occasions: very rapidly in the years following the Conquest and very slowly at the Renaissance. But our concern here is architecture in its local variations within our own country, and it is from that point of view that we have to consider the direct influence of the foreigner; and the foreigner as such without regard to his activities as a conqueror, as a missionary, or as a monk. Apart from these we shall find, over and over again, local features in our architecture attributable to the Continent, and this may be galling to our national pride. But we must reflect that it has been so all through our history and that even the jury so long venerated as a purely native institution is now pronounced to be of foreign origin.
