AECHITECTURE. 





CHAPTER II. 



WALLS, DOUBLE AND SINGLE. PORCHES, EAVES, AND 

 WINDOWS. THATCH, SLATES, AND TILES. 



The Wall and its Materials. Bricks as they are and might be. Trade Union- 

 ism. Double Walls and their Uses. Double Clothing. The Refrigerator. 

 Cooking Vessels. Fire-proof Safes. Cocoon of the Silkworm, and its treble 

 Walls. Nest of the Little Ermine, Processionary, Gold-tailed, and Brown- 

 tailed Moths. Mud Walls. Nests of the Termite. Porches, Eaves, and 

 Windows. Nests of the Myrapetra and an Indian Auc. The Sociable 

 Weaver-bird and its Nest. Thatching. Arms of the Orang-outan. 

 Japanese and Chinese Rain-cloaks. Eggs of the Gold-tailed Moth. Action 

 of Fur. Slates and Tiles. Scales of Butterfly's Wing. Shell of Tortoise. 

 Scales of Manis, Fish, and Armadillo. 



WE now come to the Walls of the house, in which there is 

 more variety than might be imagined. 



Take, for example, our modern houses of the "villa" type. 

 They are nothing but the merest shells, made of the flimsiest 

 imaginable materials. Some years ago, while walking through 

 a suburb where some very showy houses were being built, I 

 amused myself by going over them and testing them. There 

 was scarcely a room in which I could not thrust an ordinary 

 walking-stick through the wall. When they were " finished" 

 and "pointed," the houses looked beautiful, but their heat in 

 summer, cold in winter, and moisture in wet weather, can easily 

 be imagined, especially as the sand with which the mortar was 

 mixed had been procured from the banks of a tidal river. 



There is not the least necessity for such buildings. It is absurd 

 to run up such edifices as that, and then charge 120 per 

 annum for rent. The whole system is as rotten as the houses, 

 and there is nothing but prejudice and trade-unionism to pre- 

 vent our houses being cool in summer, warm in winter, and dry 

 in all weathers. 



