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 mainly, however, into tenement houses capable of housing a score or more of families, thus providing room for the rapidly increasing population of London. Against the so-called evil of this rapid growth, Elizabeth directed a proclamation that forbade the living together of different families under the same roof. Of course, this proclamation was, in the main, ineffectual. The Tudors, despotic as they were, could not resist the tremendous wave of energy that their firm government had diverted from civil strife into the channel of mercantile and industrial development. Yet their resistance had some effect as a hindrance, and is a very significant indication of the temper of the time.

The crowded condition of London, furthermore, gave rise to the erection of many new buildings without the walls. So rapid was the progress of erection that the jealous Queen found it necessary to forbid, again by royal mandate, the construction of any building within three miles of any gate of the city wall. This proclamation likewise acted as a hindrance, and was likewise, in the long run, quite ineffective, even often openly disobeyed during the life of the Queen. So much for the general condition of building during her reign.

Of materials: most churches which were erected