(11 



MASONRY. 



MASONS, FRKE. 



sis 



elected from the softest and most perishable stones. The conditions 

 under which the siliceous conglomerate*, rach as the Brainier Fall, or 

 the trap, basaltic, and granitic rocka decay, and which therefore must 

 regulate their application for purposes of masonry, have already been 



discussed. (ATMOSPHERIC INFLUENCE.] 



It follows from these observations upon the decay of stones that 

 they require to be used with precaution, even when of good quality. 

 Care should be taken to lay them in true bedding; the softer and more 

 absorbent stones should not be used in the lower parts of a wall, or in 

 situations where, they would be likely to take up moisture from the 

 ground, or from any projections of the ornamental masonry. l>y 

 capillary action ; and the use of limes, cements, or plasters, able to 

 give rise to an efflorescence of the salts in the stones, must be avoided. 

 There have lately been introduced some processes for the induration 

 and preservation of building stones, the best of which seems at present 

 to be Kansome's process, notwithstanding the adverse opinion of 

 Faraday ; but in fact every method for obviating the decay of a bad 

 stone can be only a palliation, more or less perfect, for an original 

 defect ; and the common sense of this matter is to use originally a 

 atone which should be able from its own constitution to resist the con- 

 ditions to which it is likely to be exposed, rather than to attempt to 

 remedy its defects. Highly ornamental masonry executed in soft stone 

 may be, however, protected by the application of such processes as 

 those above named ; but they should only be regarded as hazardous 

 and temporary methods of obviating present dangers, especially as their 

 success must essentially depend on the care and skill with which they 

 are applied. 



In the execution of masonry, such as we generally see in the south 

 of England, where the face is usually executed in ashlar of a less 

 thickness than the wall, the ashlar is backed up with brickwork, which 

 should be set in cement, in order to prevent any inconvenience from 

 the unequal compression of the respective materials. Great care is 

 also required in the execution of mixed masonry to obviate danger 

 from the same cause ; because the vertical chains of stone- work do not 

 compress at the same rate as the filling-in brick-work, unless the latter 

 be executed with a cementing material able to solidify in a very short 

 pace of time. The longitudinal courses of mixed masonry, as a general 

 rule, run through the wall ; or if this should not be the case the outer 

 ranges of stones are connected with the mass of the work by means of 

 bond stones, a system of construction equally applied to ashlar work 

 backed up with brick. In other respects the rules for the execution of 

 masonry are identical with those of brickwork ; that is to say, the vertical 

 joint* in elevation should never be placed immediately over one another, 

 nor should the facing work be distinct from the backing, in such 

 manner at least as to allow any separation between the two. 



Some mechanical distinctions between the various kinds of stones 

 may here be alluded to, on account of their important influence upon 

 the cost of masonry. Thus the granites, and the silicious conglomerates, 

 are not susceptible of being sawn, but can only be detached in masses 

 by means of wedges ; the sandstones, and the harder oolites, can only 

 be sawn by means of the framed, or plate saw, and sharp gravel and 

 water; whilst such stones as the Bath, Caen, &c., are worked by the 

 toothed saw. The first class above-described, or the stones unable to 

 be sawn, are worked by means of points, or axe* ; and in remarkably 

 fine works they are occasionally polished : the second class is worked 

 by the hammer, the mallet point and chisel, and sometimes " rubbed 

 fine : " the third class, or that of the soft oolites, is worked by axes or 

 by tools slightly resembling those used by joiners, and the finished 

 surface is, in England, obtained by the use of " the drag" a tool very 

 much like a short hand-saw. Rubble masonry is usually left rough from 

 the tool, whilst Ashlar work, especially in the decorative parts of a 

 building, such as strings, cornices, window and door dressings, &c., is 

 either rubbed, or brought to a smooth face by the drag : in some cases 

 however, as in what are called rusticated courses, the stones are occa- 

 sionally worked with a straight chase round the joints leaving the 

 remainder rough from the tool. [RUSTICS.] 



The above remarks have been almost exclusively applied to the 

 manner in which masonry is executed in London ; but the leading 

 principles they involve apply equally to that art in other countries ; for 

 the mude of bonding the material, the precautions to be observed in 

 order to avoid unequal settlements when rubble and ashlar are com- 

 bined, or when cementing material! of variable power* of expansion in 

 retting are used, and the principles to be observed in selecting the 

 stones and in placing them in a building, must be identical in 

 every locality. It may be interesting, however, to the student of 

 the art* of construction, to mention that the practice of the ancients 

 in this particular branch has been elaborately described by Vitruviu- ; 

 and that the practice of the moderns of recent times may be studied in 

 detail in such works as Rondelet's ' Art de Batir ; ' or in C wilt's ' En- 

 cyclopedia of Architecture.' Practically there is no difference between 

 the styles of masonry adopted in former times and those now used, for 

 the various system* of bonding used by the ancients, and described by 

 Vitruvius under the name* of the npia intertum, rttirulatum, imhrica- 

 (KM, or rrrimrtum, the itodomum, ]itru<iitodnmttm, or the cmpltclon, are, 

 in fact, only varieties of what would at present be described as coursed 

 rubble, or small ashlar masonry. The Egyptians seem, how 

 have attached great importance to the use of stones of large dimension, 

 and even occasionally to have executed monolithic structures of con 



siderable importance ; and the taste for this peculiar element of sub- 

 limity of expression in buildings may also be said to have pervaded nil 

 the Eastern nations directly concerned in the early progress of civilisa- 

 tion, for it may be discovered in the monuments of Persia, Media, and 

 In those of Tadmor and Palmyra. The character of the materials used 

 by the Greeks (that is to say, the large straight block), whirl > 

 obtained with facility from their marble rock*, had a marked int! 

 also on the expression of their architecture, insomuch as their masons 

 were able to span Urge openings by straight beams or lintels ; whereas 

 the Romans, and, generally speaking, the inhabitants of the West of 

 Europe, have been driven, by their lack of materials for the execution 

 of such trabeated masonry, to resort to the use of bricks, or of small 

 stones, used as arches for the purpose of spanning the openings so 

 much more easily dealt with when long lintels could be obtained. The 

 Cyclopean masonry, as the irregular rubble work executed with stone* 

 of enormous dimensions, is called, and f which antique specimens are 

 to be seen in the countries formerly inhabited by the Pelasgic tribes, 

 or in the modern structures of parts of Germany and of Spain, is 

 again little else than a modification of the styles of masonry already 

 described. 



In some cases, where coloured marble* are obtained at small expense, 

 they ore applied as ornamental decorations by being let into panels in 

 the external walls, or even in some instances they are exclusively used 

 for the face work. Nearly all marbles are pure carbonates of lime of 

 a highly crystalline character, and they are therefore exposed to the 

 destructive actions before alluded to as being likely to affect the more 

 earthy carbonates, although in an inferior degree. For internal 

 masonry, however, marble may be used without hesitation in situa- 

 tions at least where the following objections would not apply; tint i* 

 to say, that when \ised for chimney-pieces marble is exposed to a slow 

 calcination if placed too near the fire-place, and it loses its crystalline 

 to assume a saccharoid texture in proportion as the carbonic acid gas 

 is driven off by the heat. The marbles, again, which contain veins of 

 a different nature to the mass of the material, are exposed to tit< 

 contractions, and the Italian black and gold, for instance, or the ser- 

 pentines (though strictly speaking the latter can hardly be called 

 marbles), frequently crack upon the lines of the veins. Marble is in 

 some countries, as in Holland, much used for lining the wall 

 paving entrance halls ; but unless great care is taken to maintain an 

 equable temperature, and a great degree of dryness in the atmo.^i 

 a very unpleasant condensation of vapour takes place upon the face of 

 the marble, in consequence of its powers of rapid conduction, and f 

 its non-absorption. At the present day the fashion is to use foreign 

 marbles for ornamental masonry, and the English market ia *up]'li<-il 

 from Belgium and Italy; but there are some singularly beautiful 

 materials of this description to lie obtained from our own count i 

 their neglect must be a cause for regret to artists and to economists. 

 Marbles are worked by the mallet and chisel, and sawn by the plate- 

 saw ; indeed, on account of their uniform character, they are suscep- 

 tible of being worked by steam machinery. 



MASONS, FREE. According to the extravagant and whimsical 

 hypotheses entertained by some of those who have written upon the 

 subject of freemasonry, it is an institution of almost incredible 

 antiquity. We are told by some that it originated with the builder* 

 of the tower of Babel, though others are content with tracing it no 

 farther back than the temple of Solomon. If we are to believe tlu-m, 

 the institution has been continued down in uninterrupted succession 

 from that very remote time to the present day, through all the changes 

 of governments, religion, civilisation, and knowledge. Against this 

 there exists one very simple, yet fatal, argument, namely, that were 

 this really the case, such an uninterrupted series of tradition must have 

 kept alive and handed down to us much information that has, on the 

 contrary, been utterly lost. Instead of accumulated knowledge, we 

 find that even a technical knowledge of architecture itself has not been 

 so preserved; else how are we to account for the ignorance which 

 everywhere prevailed with respect to Gothic architecture and it* 

 principles almost as soon as the style itself fell into disuse 1 That there 

 may have been many points of resemblance between the fraternities of 

 masons in the middle ages, and such institutions as those of the 

 Kieuninian mysteries, and the corporation of Ionian architects, is not 

 only possible, but highly probable, because similarity of circumstances 

 would almost necessarily lead to it. Before the invention of printing, 

 when the means of communicating knowledge were few and imperfect, 

 no readier mode presented itself of extending and keeping up the 

 speculative and practical information spread among any profession, than 

 by ettablishing the profession itself into a community or order, all the 

 members of which would have one object and one interest in coim'>n. 

 This would be more particularly the case with regard to architecture, 

 which calls for the co-operation of various branches of science and the 

 mechanical arts, and was moreover for several ages the paramount art, 

 all the other arts of decoration being, as for as they then existed, 

 subservient to it. 



The importance of architecture to the church, on account of the 

 impressive dignity it conferred upon religious rites and the ministers 

 of religion, naturally induced the clergy to take it under their r 

 protection. For a long time not only were ecclesiastics the chief 

 patrons but almost the chief professors of the art; yet as they had 

 occasion for the assistance of practical artificers in various branches, 



