About the time of the Tudors, say the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the making of bricks was resumed in England, and many dwelling houses and some few churches were built of good brickwork in that and succeeding reigns.  We find in such buildings as Hampton Court Palace, St. James’ Palace, and Chelsea Hospital examples of the use of brickwork in important buildings near London at later dates.  The fire of London, in 1666, gave a sudden check to the use of timber in house building in the metropolis.  Previous to that date the majority of houses had been of a sort the most ornamental examples of which were copied in “Old London” at the Colonial Exhibition.  The rebuilding after the fire was largely in brick; and in the suburbs, in the latter part of the 17th and the 18th centuries, many dignified square brick mansions, with bold, overhanging eaves and high roofs and carved ornaments, entered through a pair of florid wrought iron high gates, were built, some few of which still linger in Hampstead and other suburbs.  The war time at the beginning of this century was a trying time for builders, with its high prices and heavy taxes, and some of the good-looking brick buildings of that day turn out to have been very badly built when they are pulled about for alterations.  With the rapid, wonderful increase in population and wealth in this metropolis during the last 50 years a vast consumption of bricks has taken place, and a year or two back it was reported by the commissioners of police that the extensions of London equaled in a year 70 miles of new house property, practically all of brick.  Brick were heavily taxed in the war time which I have referred to, and the tax was levied before burning.

There was a maximum size for the raw brick, which it was supposed served to keep bricks uniform, and the expectation was entertained that when the duty came off, many fancy sizes of bricks would be used.  This has not, however, turned out to be the case.  The duty has been taken off for years; but the differences in the size of bricks in England are little more than what is due to the different rate of shrinkage of brick earth under burning.  It must not, however, be supposed that they have always, and in all countries, been of about the same dimensions.

The size and proportions of bricks have varied extremely in different countries and in the same country at different periods.  Some bricks of unusual shapes have also been employed from time to time.  Other countries besides England possess districts which from various circumstances have been more or less densely built on, but do not yield much stone or timber; and, accordingly, brickwork is to be met with in many localities.  Holland and Belgium, for example, are countries of this sort; and the old connection between Holland and England led to the introduction among us, in the reign of William III., of the Dutch style of building, which has been in our own day revived under the rather incorrect title of Queen Anne architecture.  Another great brick district exists on the plains of Lombardy and the northern part of Italy generally, and beautiful brickwork, often with enrichments in marble, is to be found in such cities as Milan, Pavia, Cremona, and Bologna.