HAVE you a bicycle？Where I used to live，most boys had bicycles.We used to ride our bicycles out to a field where we could play baseball.One afternoon one of the boys was late getting there.But when he did come he broke up the baseball game.He had left his bicycle at home and was driving a goat hitched to a little cart.At once all of us other boys wanted a goat too，even though a goat wasn’t nearly so good for getting anywhere in a hurry.
And that is just like what happened three hundred years ago in England.An architect named Inigo Jones went to study architecture in Italy.He saw the Italian Renaissance buildings there.He studied the old Roman buildings，and when he got back to England he began designing Renaissance buildings.They were new to Englishmen，just as the goat was new to us boys，and every one wanted a Renaissance building just as all of us wanted a goat.
Renaissance architecture was late in reaching England，just as the boy with the goat was late in reaching the ball game，but when it finally did get there，nothing else would do.
Soon a great palace for the king，called the Palace of Whitehall，was designed in the Renaissance style.But the only part of the design that was built was the banqueting hall.This was Inigo Jones’s best-known piece of architecture.The Banqueting Hall of Whitehall became a famous building.It looks something like the Petit Trianon at Versailles.It was the first of many English buildings based on the Roman and Italian designs.
Do you remember that mixy paragraph about insides and outsides，in Chapter 21？Well，the Banqueting Hall is a good example of the outside not being the outside of the inside.The outside looks like a building with two stories，but there is only one story inside—just one big room with a balcony around the walls.
The Banqueting Hall is，however，a beautiful building both inside and out.Notice the Roman columns and the rusticated stone-work at the street level，just like the Italian Renaissance buildings.The Banqueting Hall is still called by that name，although it was used as a chapel for many years and finally turned into a museum.
No.83-1BANQUETING HALL OF WHITEHALL，LONDON（伦敦怀特豪尔宫宴会厅）The next great architect in England after Inigo Jones wasn’t an architect at all.At least，not at first.He was an astronomer and a college professor.He was Sir Christopher Wren.
Sir Christopher Wren became famous as an architect because of a fire.It was one of the biggest fires in the history of the world and happened in 1666.A building in London took fire.The fire spread to other buildings and could not be stopped.Soon a large part of London was burning down.“London Bridge is burning down”would have made a good song for 1666.Besides London Bridge and thousands of other buildings，over fifty churches were burned.The biggest of these was old St.Paul’s Cathedral.Sir Christopher Wren was given the job of making new designs both for St.Paul’s and for the other churches.
Sir Christopher thought Gothic was a poor kind of architecture.He liked the Renaissance style and so he built the new St.Paul’s Cathedral as a Renaissance building.
Like the Gothic cathedrals，St.Paul’s is in the form of a cross.Over the crossing Sir Christopher erected a very large dome with a stone lantern on top.Really it is a three-in-one dome—an outside dome，an inside dome for a ceiling，and a brick dome between the other two.This brick dome between the other two was made to hold up the heavy stone lantern.
The outside of St.Paul’s has two orders of columns，one above the other like the Banqueting Hall.This makes St.Paul’s look better than St.Peter’s in Rome，because the two orders give a better scale to judge the height by，than the one order of huge columns on St.Peter’s.
Unfortunately，St.Paul’s wasn’t very carefully built.The walls were filled with poor materials and the building in time became unsafe.Several years ago it was closed while workmen strengthened the foundations and the supports.Now it is again open and strong enough not to collapse.
Sir Christopher Wren himself is buried in St.Paul’s.On his tomb，in Latin，is carved，“If you would see my monument，look around you.”St.Paul’s is indeed his monument，the great landmark of London and the largest cathedral in England.
No.83-2ST.PAUL’S，LONDON（伦敦圣保罗大教堂）As for Sir Christopher Wren’s other churches，no two of the more than fifty，are alike.Some are noted for the outside design，many for their beautiful interiors，and many more for their graceful steeples.In fact Sir Christopher Wren is famous for his Renaissance steeples.People liked them so well that even in the American colonies churches were built with steeples that look like his designs.
Books were now published giving the rules and designs for Renaissance architecture and many buildings were put up from designs and descriptions in these books.Palladio’s book on architecture was translated into English and was used by architects in both England and America.
Renaissance architecture was used after Sir Christopher Wren’s death for many years in England.Under the kings George I，George II and George III the English Renaissance architecture had reached a style all its own.This is called the Georgian style.I’ll tell you more about the Georgian style when we come to American architecture.
【中文阅读】
你有自行车吗？我住的地方，大多数男孩都有自行车。我们常常骑着自行车到野外去打棒球。某天下午，有个男孩来迟了。但他的到来却使我们停止了打球，因为他把自行车丢在家，却骑着头山羊来，后面还套着辆小推车。一时间我们大家也都想要有头山羊了，尽管山羊对要赶路的人来说根本就不实用。
这有点像英国三百年前发生的一件事。当时有位叫伊尼哥·琼斯的建筑师到意大利去学习建筑。他看到意大利有许多文艺复兴式建筑，但他却学习了古罗马建筑。他在回到英国后，却又开始设计文艺复兴式建筑。这种建筑风格对英国人来说是新鲜的，就像山羊对我们男孩一样。人人都想拥有一栋文艺复兴式建筑，就像我们男孩都想得到山羊一样。
文艺复兴式建筑很晚才到达英国，就像那个骑着山羊的男孩很晚才赶到棒球场一样，但当山羊最终到达后，却又摆不上别的什么用场。
很快，一座大王宫，便按文艺复兴式建筑风格进行了设计，它叫做“怀特豪尔宫”。但是按设计建成的那部分却只有宴会厅。这就是伊尼哥·琼斯最著名的一件建筑作品。怀特豪尔宫的宴会厅成了一栋著名的建筑物。它看起来有点像凡尔赛的小特里阿农宫。它是英国按罗马和意大利建筑风格而设计的第一座建筑物。