TAKING REINS IN HAND. 85 



I need not say to any one who has attempted a 

 similar task, that the builders discouraged me : the 

 stones were too round or too small ; they had no 

 face ; but I insisted upon my plan only yielding 

 the use of bricks for the corners, and for the window 

 jambs. 



I further insisted that no stone should be touched 

 with a hammer ; and that, so far as feasible, the mossy 

 or weather sides of the stones should be exposed. 

 The cementing material was simple mortar, made of 

 shell lime and sharp sand ; the only exception being 

 one course of five or six inches in depth, laid in water 

 cement, six inches above the ground, and intended to 

 prevent the ascent of moisture through the mason 

 work. The house walls were of the uniform height 

 of ten feet, covered with a roof of sharp pitch. The 

 gables were carried up with plank laid on vertically, 

 and thoroughly battened ; and to give picturesque 

 effect as well as added space upon the garret floor, 

 the gables overhang the walls by the space of a foot, 

 and are supported by the projecting floor beams, 

 which are rounded at their ends, but otherwise left 

 rough. This feature, as well as the sharp pent roof, 

 was an English one, and a pleasant reminder of old 

 houses I had seen in the neighborhood of Gloucester. 



To avoid the expense of a great number of win- 

 dow jambs, which, being of brick, were not of home 



