Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/191

 COTTAGE DWEI.LINGS IN VARIOUS STYLES. 1 67 buildings is an object. As a general principle, it may be affirmed that the ma- terials of the walls of a cottage ought always to be such as are, or may be, furnished by the soil or vicinity where it is placed. In this point of view, mud, pis6, brick, and timber are the most universal materials for cottage walls ; and, next to these, small land stones, so far broken or squared as to incorporate in a wall built either on the bond or on the cemen- titious principle of construction. Among the land stones of a country are included the shale, scales, or shivery stone, of some districts, and the pebbles and flints of otliers. We shall here confine ourselves to giving short directions for forming a flint wall ; and we shall take them from the Landscape Architecture of Italy, by Gilbert Laing Meason. Be- fore we give this quotation, however, we wish particularly to impress on the minds of our readers the necessity of having coignes and other supports of the roof, which shall act on the principle of independent strength, in all cases where the walls are to be formed of pise, mud, pebbles, flint, or, in short, of any material, the strength of which depends upon the cementitious principle ; that is, on tlie plasticity, when used, of a part of the materials. This Design and the preceding one are examples of this mode of construction, and these remarks are introduced here incidentally; but in the systematic part of our work the sub- ject will be treated in detail, and it will then appear to be one of very great importance, though very little understood. 331. Flint Walls. " In the chalk countries of England, why may wc not renew the flint-built walls of our ancestors, seeing that the Roman circus at Toulouse has endured so long? Build up the flints in frames, and pour cement into the interstices; the found- ation should be on brick arches ; and the cement employed may be composed of tho- roughly burnt chalk, slacked with water, to reduce it to the finest dry powder ; and then sifted, and added to two parts of rough sharp sand, with small sharp gravel stones. The whole should be mixed together dry, and then a sufficient quantity of water should be poured upon it to make it into a liquid paste, which should be used immediately. The slacking of the lime, the mixture, and the application to the walling, should follow one another without delay. A quantity of the sand and powdered lime ought to be at hand to throw into the moulds, in case the mortar should appear too thin. By such manage- ment this cement requires not age to harden it. On examination of the oldest parts of the ancient castle at Hastings, we are satisfied that the mortar employed was so formed, and tlirown, in a vevy liquid state, into the centre of the thickest parts of the wall. Flint-built walls would produce an excellent effect in irregular buildings ; for the rough- ness of the surface, in towers, gives the impression of strength and stability." 305