The Architecture of Georgetown. nt 
ancient work, saying " what good mortar the men of old 
did mix, hard as the best of cements, and what grand hard 
bricks they made or burnt in olden days ;" forgetting 
all the while, that mortar requires an age to harden in, 
and much time is required for crystallization to strengthen 
or consolidate it ; and as to bricks (which bears more 
upon the point at issue) it is only the very best 
and well burnt ones that have survived the ravages of 
time, or the sharp trials of the weather, or the frostiness 
of the winter ; and so with our Dutch houses, — the well 
built ones alone remain while the others have gone the 
way of all common wood-work in the colony. 
But to return to the Dutch. Their form or mode of 
building seems to have but little effected our English 
taste or style of construction ; much less tempted us with 
the desire of imitation, while on the other hand our 
casual intercourse with America has done much to 
modify many of our semi-art notions or building fancies, 
or at any rate, to make us broader-minded as to building 
matter ; hence to the far off Americans we partly owe 
our concrete development, our iron galvanised and metal 
buildings. It seems too, that they have stirred us up a 
bit and made us fashion our softer wood, or American 
lumber into forms more varied and figures more fantastic 
— but we must add, not necessarily more artistic. While 
we receive with gratitude many a building hint or con- 
structional wrinkle or patent house-appliance from our 
Northern friends, we must be on our guard lest the little 
artistic taste or art feeling or love of chaste design still 
alive or lingering in the souls of some, may not be ab- 
sorbed or be allowed to let slip into American utilita- 
rianism where quasi art, all cut, dried and stereotyped, 
