ECONOMY OF STONE HOUSES. 133 



rial, and that it carries with it an unhealthy dampness. Where 

 such dampness exists, it must be due to faulty construction. 

 Our cousins, in England and in France and in Italy, have 

 been living quite safely in stone houses for a great many cen- 

 turies ; and the great cost alleged is due to such hammering 

 of the stones, or to such an over-smoothness of exterior as are 

 no way essential to a good, a substantial and a picturesque farm 

 homestead. There are thousands of acres in New England 

 which have stones scattered over the fields, which must be 

 removed for easy tillage, which ordinarily go to the construc- 

 tion of fences, or to lumber the sides of highways, and which 

 would furnish effective material, of varying tint, and without 

 a hammer's stroke, for the walls of a substantial house. If 

 those of regular angles are lacking for the corners and jambs, 

 hard brick may be substituted, which, so far from offering 

 ugly contrast, supplies the very one which they are just now 

 seeking for some of the elegant villas of Newport, and which 

 belongs to some of the most venerated old country houses of 

 England. A strip of blue stone will make sills, and, for 

 lintels, nothing can be stancher and more secure than well- 

 seasoned oak or chestnut timber. 



Some sixteen or seventeen years ago, I had occasion to build 

 a small, one-story farm-house of some fifty feet in length 

 by twenty-seven in width, and used in the construction the 

 stones nearest at hand, being a bit of old fence which it was 

 necessary to remove. The stones varied in size from the big- 

 ness of my fist to those eight or ten inches in diameter. The 

 windows were thrown two into one, to avoid cost of unneces- 

 sary jambs ; and these jambs, and the angles of the building, 

 were of brick. The gables were constructed of wood , and over- 

 hanging the end walls by a foot or more, thus enlarging the 

 area of attic-floor and lessening cost of construction. This 

 building, whose walls are as stanch and strong as on the 

 year following their completion, was executed at a cost of 

 only $1,500, and a like sum would almost cover it now. No 

 building could be drier (of course, it is furred off some five 

 inches within), none could be warmer in winter or cooler in 

 summer. As for exterior, it has, certainly, a homely rough- 

 ness, which, I must say, I like, as a protest that will stand 

 against over-nicety. 



