92 TlMEHRI. 
are very scarce and seldom attempted owing pro- 
bably to a difficulty arising from these upright timbers 
just alluded to. Descending now to the basement 
or ground floor and viewing it from the exterior, it 
is easy to see how here too, a little art would add 
greatly to its appearance and improve the general 
look of the building ; for instance what a gain it 
would be, if the high square brick pillars carrying the 
whole building were surmounted or crowned with a cut or 
moulded brick capping and necking, instead of as at pre- 
sent finishing off so flatly or abruptly ; and where the 
basement is not closed in, or where the brick piers stand 
out detached, the addition of such a capping would cer- 
tainly be worth the experiment.* 
If we can improve so easily the ground floor of our 
houses by a little art attention as just hinted, so too a."> 
ordinary building might gain much, by a little more care 
and thought bestowed upon the upper cornices. Many 
of our hipped roofs could be made to carry a good bold 
projecting cornice, with at least a freize board below ; 
and this feature alone would give a certain dignity to 
the building almost exempting it from further architectural 
efforts being made. 
About one half of our buildings rejoice in gable ends ; 
here again we have a fair field given us for making the 
most of our barge-boards, to use an old English term, 
* The brick piers of Queen's College Building have been treated as 
suggested, and with marked success. There is much in this building 
deserving notice, it has a distinctive character of its own, and some one 
of competent mind has studied well the design. If spirited men will 
attempt and succeed in making bricks out here, and there is a scheme 
afloat for so doing, a few moulded bricks of oge or torus form would 
immensely assist us out here in point and art of architecture. 
