CONSTRUCTION OF GARDEN WALLS. 



107 



is to gain strength, or what is in practice 

 called bond. The rows of bricks are 

 designated courses. Grout is mortar 

 thinned with water : it should be used 

 moderately hot — that is, made of newdy- 

 slacked lime : it is often used in solid 

 brick walls, whose centres are packed 

 with bats, or fragments of bricks, flints, 

 small stones, &c. It sets rapidly, and 

 cements the whole well together. When 

 a course of bricks is laid, having two 

 stretchers and a header placed alternately, 

 (the headers of every course resting on 

 the stretchers of the course below,) the 

 arrangement is called Flemish bond. 

 When a course consists entirely of 

 stretchers, and the course over it entirely 

 of headers, it is called old English bond. 

 When several courses of stretchers have 

 only one course of headers, it is called 

 running bond. Flemish bond is generally 

 preferred by workmen, as the perpendi- 

 cular joints are more easily kept, by which 

 means their work looks better and is less 

 troublesome : the practical difficulty they 

 have to contend with is, that in the header 

 courses, the joints which show outwardly 

 being multiplied, they are apt, if not 

 attended to, to overrun those of the 



course beneath, when either a straight 

 joint must occur, or a closer must be 

 inserted. For every wall above one brick 

 in thickness English bond is preferable ; 

 but for walls of a single brick in thickness, 

 Flemish bond is best, if the joints are 

 kept perpendicular over each other in the 

 alternate courses. Closers should never 

 be allowed except in the quoins, where 

 they necessarily must occur, in order not 

 to weaken the work. The following four 

 particulars should be carefully attended 

 to in brick-building : first, That the 

 foundations be set off perfectly level, so 

 that each course may lie perfectly hori- 

 zontal, to provide a level bed for the 

 course above it ; secondly, That they be 

 placed so that the joints of each course 

 may be directly over the solids of the 

 course next below it ; thirdly, That the 

 joints be kept perfectly perpendicular ; 

 fourthly, That no more mortar be used 

 than is absolutely necessary to produce 

 adhesion — and for this reason it is usual 

 to restrict the workmen to joints not 

 exceeding five-sixteenths of an inch for 

 each bed of mortar. Walls with such 

 joints will not only look better, but will 

 be both stronger and more durable. 



