PART 3.] 
Ball: Building and Ornamental Slones of India. 
99 
Throughout the Gangetic valley the public buildings which have been erected under the 
Character of Anglo-Indian buildings. a , US P !oeS ° f the British have until T uite recently been built 
almost exclusively of bricks. In many cases the difficulty 
of obtaining a building stone within an easy distance of the towns situated in the alluvial 
valley, and in all the consideration of primary economy, have led to the employment of 
perishable bricks instead of lasting stone in the construction of our officers' courts, private 
residences, &c. 
Even in parts of the country where good building stones are to be obtained, bricks are 
often the only material regularly used. 
It is no doubt this feature of Anglo-Indian architecture which in part gave rise to the 
saying that if the English left India, in a century after their departure no sign of their 
occupation, save that afforded by a few empty beer bottles, would remain. 
Unfortunately the use of bricks cannot be justified even by the appropriate or ornamental 
Architectural results from the use character of the results. If durability is sacrificed, we are 
of bricks. justified in asking if not for ornamental structures at least 
for buildings calculated to make this trying climate somewhat more endurable. But what do 
we find ? To quote the words of Major (now Colonel) Medley : “ Who does not know the scene 
of desolation that comes over one at first sight of some of our Indian cantonments: the straight 
and dusty roads, the rows of glaring white rectangular barracks, the barn-like church dilferiuo- 
only from a barrack in the presence of a square tower and classical! portico, the Eoman 
Catholic Chapel ditto, only smaller and with bright green doors all round ”? and again: “ It 
must, I think, be allowed that the true principles of architectural construction for buildings in 
the east, which are to boused by men habituated to an entirely different climate, have not as yet 
been discovered; a mosque, for instance, has a pleasant temperature both in winter and summer, 
while a Gothic church in India is, as a rule, either very hot or very cold. I do not say that 
Gothic churches are unsuitable to India, but only that they are so as we now build them.”* 
Temples and houses built in the native style, though often somewhat close and ill ven- 
Native buildings suited to the tilated, are generally considerably cooler than any Europeau 
climate. buildings. This is particularly true of the massive stone 
structures of the north-west. 
In new countries, such as Australia and America, the engineer or architect often experi- 
Evidence of durability of material ences a difficulty in determining the durability of materials 
afforded by native buildings. w hi c h he may wisll to emp | oy . Even in England this diffi¬ 
culty is not unknown, as is evidenced by the failure of the stone used in the construction of the 
houses of Parliament; but in India, in the civilized parts, wherever building material occurs, 
ancient temples or other native buildings are almost sure to be found. These furnish all the 
information which can be required as to the durability of the stone when exposed to the 
atmosphere. 
The other qualities in building stones—strength, appearance, and susceptibility for 
„ , ornamental treatment—can all be determined by simple and 
Other qualities admit of speedy vji.ti.iii • i , , , ,. 
tests. readily applied tests; but there is no known speedy test ot 
durability. 
The presence or absence of certain minerals, or some peculiarity in the structure, are 
Causes of disintegration causes sufficient to determine the decomposition, which may 
bo more or less protracted, but which must eventuate in the 
disintegration of the stone and the consequent disfigurement, if not total destruction, of the 
building in which it has been employed. 
* Prof, Papers ou Indian Engineering, Vol, I, pp. 201-2, 
