Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/638

 606 BELGIAN ARCHITECTURE. Pakt II. ^^, This building was more pleasing in its details : and, though com- menced a few years later, its simpler and more monumental character seems to have preserved it from the individual caprices which are . apparent in the palace, and which L. l)ecame the fatal characteristic of all future designs. Neither of these buildings can, however, be called in strictness Gothic designs, for the true &)vit of that art had perished before they were coni- menced. Many of the private dwelling- houses in the Flemish cities are ])icturesque and elegant, though hardly rising to the grade of specimens or fine art; but Avhen grouped together in the narrow winding streets, or along the banks of the canals, the result is so varied and charming that we are inclined to ascribe to them 450. Part ofBishop's Palace, Liege. Iso scale. ■ . • • ^ . ^ ^ more intrinsic beauty than they really possess as individual designs. Most of them are of brick, and the brick being used undisguisedly, and the buildings depending wholly on such forms as could be given to that material, they never offend our taste by shams ; and the honest endeavor of the citizens to ornament their dwellings externally, meets here with the success that must always follow such an attempt. To exhibit this class of structures adequately would require far more illustration than is compatible with a work like the present, and would occupy the space that more properly belongs to buildings of a larger and more monu- mental class, and of higher pretensions to architectural effect, both in their design and the manner in which it is carried out.