52 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



rally calculated for long keeping, as this quality depends considerably, 

 though not entirely, on the bitter extract of hops, or other vegetables, 

 with which the liquor is mingled. 



BRICK. A kind of factitious stone, made of argillaceous earth, 

 formed in moulds, arid baked in kilns, or dried in the sun. Bricks 

 appear to be of the highest antiquity; and, as we learn from sacred 

 history, the making of them was one of the oppressions to which the 

 children of Israel were subjected during their servitude in Egypt. 

 The bricks of the ancients, however, so far differed from ours, that 

 they were mixed with chopped straw in order to bind the clay 

 together, and instead of being burned were commonly dried in the sun. 

 Yitruvius recommended, that they should be exposed in the air for 

 two years before they were used, as they could not be sufficiently dry 

 in less time ; and by the laws of Utica, no bricks were allowed to be 

 used, unless they had lain to dry for five years. From Dr. Pocock's 

 description of a pyramid in Egypt, constructed of unburnt bricks, it 

 appear* that the Egyptian bricks were nearly of the same shape as 

 oir .ommon bricks, but rather larger. The bricks used by the Ro- 

 mans were in general square ; and M. Ciuatremere de Q,uincy 

 observes, that in his researches among the antique buildings of Rome, 

 he found them of three different sizes. 



Among the celebrated buildings of antiquity, constructed of brick, 

 were the tower of Babel, and the famous walls of Babylon, reckoned 

 by the Greeks among the wonders of the world ; the walls of Athens, 

 the house of Croesus at Sardis, and the walls of the tomb of Mausolus. 

 The paintings, which were brought from Lacedaemon to Rome, 

 to ornament the Comitium in the edileship of Varro and Murena, 

 were cut from walls of brick ; and the Temple of Peace, the 

 Pantheon, and all the Thermae, were composed of this material. The 

 Babylonian bricks, which are in the possession of the English East 

 India Company, and upon which Dr. Hayes favored the public with a 

 dissertation, are inscribed with various figures and characters, and are 

 supposed by some to be a part of that brick work, upon which Pliny 

 tells us that the Babylonians wrote the observations which they made 

 of the stars for seven hundred and twenty years. 



BRIDGE. In Architecture, from a Saxon word, is a structure 

 of carpentry, masonry, or iron work, built over a river, canal, or 

 valley, for the convenience of passing from one side to the other, and 

 may be considered as a road supported in the air by arches or lintels, 

 and these again supported by proper piers or butrnents. A stately 

 bridge over a large and rapid river, while it is one of the most diffi- 

 cult, is justly esteemed one of the most noble and striking specimens 

 of human art To behold grand arches composed of an immense 

 quantity of snrall materials, so disposed and united as to form one 

 compacted body, which, bestriding the stream, affords above an ample 

 communication with the distant shores, and allows below an uninter- 



