BUILDING. 
may have broader beds than those of every 
ashler placed in each alternate interval. In 
every course of ashler facing bond stones 
should be introduced, and their number 
should be proportioned to the length of the 
course. This should be strictly attended to 
in long r anges of stones, both in walls with- 
out apertures and in the courses that form 
wide piers ; when they are wide, every bond 
stone of one course should fall in the middle 
of every two bond stones in the course be- 
low. In every pier where the jambs are 
coursed with the ashler, and also in every 
pier where the jambs are one entire height, 
every alternate stone next to the aperture 
in the former case, and every alternate stone 
next to the jambs in the latter case, should 
bond through the wall, and also every other- 
stone should be placed lengthwise, in each 
return of an angle, not less than the average 
length of an ashler. Bond stones should 
have no taper in their beds; the end of 
every bond stone, as well as the end of every 
return stone, should never be less than a 
foot. There should be no such thing as a 
closer permitted, unless it bond through the 
w.all. All the uprights, or joints, should be 
square, or at right angles to the front of the 
wall, and may recede about |ths of an inch 
from the face, from therrce gradually widen 
to the back, and thereby make hollow, 
wedge-formed figures, which will give suf- 
ficient cavities for the reception of packing 
and mortar. 
Both the upper and lower beds of every 
stone should be quite level, and not form 
acute angles, as is often the case ; the joints 
from the face to about jths of an inch within 
the wall should be either cemented with 
fine mortar, or with a mixture of oil, putty, 
and white lead : the former is the practice 
both in London and Edinburgh, and the 
latter in Glasgow. The putty cement wilt 
stand longer than most stones, and will be 
prominent when the face of the stones has 
been corroded with age. The whole of tlie 
ashler, except that mentioned of the joints 
toward the face of the wall, the ruble work, 
and th6 core, should be set and laid in the 
best mortar, and every stone laid on its na- 
tural bed.. 
All wail-plates should be placed upon a 
number of bond stones, and particularly 
those of the roof ; by which means they may 
either be joggled upon the bonds, or fastened 
to them by iron and lead. In building walls 
or insulated pillars of veiy short horizontal 
dimensions, not exceeding a length of 
stones that can be easily procured, every 
stone should be quite level on the bed, with- 
out any degree of concavity, and should be 
one entire piece between every two hori- 
zontal joints. This should be particularly 
attended to on piers, where the insisting 
weight is great, otherwise the stones will be 
in danger of splintering and Crushing to 
pieces, and perhaps occasion a total demo- 
lition of the labric.^ Vitruvius has left us an 
account of the maimer of the construction 
of the walls of the ancients, which were as 
follows : the reticulated is that wherein the 
joints run in parallel lines, making angles of 
45° each with the horizon in contrary ways, 
and consequently the faces of the stones 
form squares, of which one diagonal is hori- 
zontal, and the other vertical Tliis kind of 
wall was much used by the Romans in his 
time. Tile incertain wall w'as formed of 
stones of which the one direction of the 
joints was horizontal, and the other vertical ; 
but the vertical joints of the alternate courses 
were not always arranged in the same straight 
line : all that they regarded was to make 
them break-joint. This manner of walling 
was used by the Romans in times antece- 
dent to tiie time of Vitruvius. Vitruvius 
directs, that in both the reticulated and in- 
certain walls, instead of filling up the spaces 
between the sides with ruble promiscuous- 
ly, they should be strengthened with abut- 
ments of hewn stone or bricks, or common 
flints, built in walls two feet high, and bound 
to the front with cramps of iron. The em- 
plection consisted of two sides or shells of 
squared stone, with alternate joints, and a 
ruble core in the middle. 
The walls of the Greeks were of three 
kinds, named isodomum, pseudosodomum, 
and emplection. The isodomum had the 
courses all of an equal thickness ; but the 
pseudosodomum had them unequally thick : 
in both these walls, wherever the squared 
work wtts discontinued, the interval, or core, 
was filled up with common hard stones, laid 
in the manner of brick, with alternate joints. 
The emplection was constructed wholly of 
squared stones ; in these bond stones were 
placed at regular intervals, and the stones 
in the intermediate distance were laid with 
alternate joints in the same manner as those 
of the face: so that this manner of Greek 
walling must have been much stronger than 
the emplection of the Roman villagers. 
This is a most strong and durable maimer of 
walling, and in modern times it may be 
practised with the utmost success; but in 
the common run of buildings it would be 
too expensive. 
