40 AX AMERICAX FARMER IX EXGLAXD. 



square panes set in lead ; those of the other were lozenge-shaped, 

 and in neither were they more than three inches wide. The 

 frames were much wider than they were high, and they opened 

 sideways. In the newer part of the city, the fashionable quarter, 

 there are a good many brick-walled houses faced with stucco. 

 Others are of Bath stone, and these are not unfrequently painted 

 over of the original color of the stone. Bath stone, which is the 

 most common material of mason work, is a fine-grained freestone, 

 very easy to the chisel. It is furnished much cheaper than our 

 brown stone, so much so that there would be a chance of export- 

 ing it to America with profit. There is a finer sort, called by the 

 masons Caen stone, which is brought from Normandy. The color 

 of both is at first buff, but rapidly changes to a dark brown.* 

 There are some buildings of red sandstone, of a little lighter 

 color than that now so much used in New York. In buildings 

 mainly of brick, stone is used more than with us ; and there are 

 none of those equivocating, sanded-wood parapets, porticos, steps, 

 etc.; all is the real grit. The bricks are mottled, half red and 

 half greyish yellow ; the effect, at a little distance, being, as I 

 said, a yellow or greyish-red, much pleasanter than the bright 

 red color of our Eastern brick. Every thing out of doors here 

 soon gets toned down, as the artists say, by the smoke. Perhaps 

 it is partly on this account that pure white paint is never used ; 

 but the prevailing taste is evidently for darker colors than with 

 us. The common hues of the furniture and fitting up of shops, 

 for instance, is nearly as dark as old mahogany. This gives 

 even the dram-shops such a rich, substantial look, that we can 

 hardly recognize them as of the same species as our tawdry 

 " saloons," painted, gilded, and bedizened to catch flies with their 



* Caen stone does not darken much unless from soot. It is now frequently imported, 

 and several fine buildings hare been made of it in New York. 



