Understanding terminology that describes seventeenth- and eighteenth-century architecture

In brickwork, particularly when used in the construction of large buildings; different terms are used to describe how bricks are laid out and how they relate to each other. A stretcher is a brick laid lengthwise, facing out on its larger face, a header is a brick laid with its shorter end facing out on the wall, and a soldier is a brick laid on its small end with its long side facing out.

The pride of Jefferson regarding Monticello was the cupola, or dome, over the top of the building. The building of the cupola was a massive architectural problem, needing intense calculations and measurements just to keep the dome upright. Jefferson placed his own study in the cupola, as it also provided the best light and airflow of any room.

Image accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons. Author: YF12. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monticello\_2010-10-29.jpg

Inigo Jones, who drafted this plan for a new Palace at Whitehall, was the first notable English architect, working in the seventeenth century. His greatest contribution to English architecture was to bring Italian ideals of neoclassicism to the British Isles. Neoclassicism's use of perfect symmetry and Greco-Roman aesthetics was a sharp departure from the overly wrought palaces and red brick houses of Tudor England.

Image: Plan for A New Palace at Whitehall by Inigo Jones (1638). http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ingo\_Jones\_plan\_for\_a\_new\_palace\_at\_Whitehall\_1638.jpg