A R C H 1 T 
there needs no affidance 5 if otherwife, we mud have re- 
courfe to various methods in order to fupply the defeat. 
The other matters which may occur for a foundation, 
are clay, fund, common earth, or rotten boggy ground. 
Clay will often both raife and link a foundation; yet it has 
a folidity which, with proper management, is very ufefnl. 
The marfhy, rotten, or boggy, ground, is of all others the 
word:; yet even upon this great buildings may be raided 
with perfedt fafety, provided proper care be taken. In 
cafe of boggy earths, or unfirm fand, piling is one of the 
molt common methods of fecuring a foundation ; and, not- 
withdanding the natural difiidvantage of the earth, piles, 
when properly executed, are one of the firmed and mod 
1 ‘ecure foundations. The piles Ihould be placed about fif¬ 
teen or eighteen inches apart, and driven till they come to 
a folid bottom ; the heads fhould then be made level, with 
fleepers laid upon them, and brick-work between the ileep- 
ers, even with the tops; the whole is then to be planked 
over with drong four-inch plank, to receive the building. 
In foundations near the edge of waters, we diould al¬ 
ways be careful to found to the very bottom, as many ac¬ 
cidents have happened from the ground being undermined 
-by rivers. The fame method is to be followed when the 
ground has been dug or wrought before. It ought never 
to be truded in the condition in which it is left; but mud 
be dug through into the folid and unmoved ground, and 
Tome way into that, according to the weight and magni¬ 
tude of the intended edidee. The church of St. Peter’s 
at Rome is an indance of the importance of this lad ob- 
fervation. That church is in great part built upon the old 
-■circus of Nero ; and, the builders having neglected to dig 
through the whole foundation, the druchire is confequent- 
ly fo much the weaker. The walls were judged of drength 
enough to bear two deeples upon the corners of the fron- 
tifpiece; but the foundation was found too w'eak, when it 
was impoflible to remedy the defeth 
Before the architect begins to lay the foundation of the 
building, it will be proper to condruft fuch drains as may 
be necedary for carrying off the rain, or other refufe wa¬ 
ter that would otherwife be collected and lodge about the 
houfe. In making drains for carrying od'this water, it will 
be necedary to make large allowances for the different 
quantities that may be collected at different times. It mud: 
alfo be conddered, that water of this kind is always loaded 
with a vad quantity of fediment, which by its continual 
falling to the bottom will be very apt to choak up the 
drain, efpecially at thofe places where there happen to be 
angles or corners in its courfe. The only method of pre¬ 
venting this is by means of certain cavities difpofed at pro¬ 
per didances from one another. Into thefe the fediment 
will be collected, and they are for that reafon called fefs- 
pools. With regard to thefe, the only diredtions necedary 
are, that they be placed at proper didances, be diffidently 
large, and placed fo as to be eadly cleaned. 
„ All drains ought to be arched over at top, and may be 
mod conveniently built of brick. According to their dif¬ 
ferent dzes, the following proportions of height and thick- ■ 
nefs may be obferved. If tlve drain is eighteen inches wide, 
the height of the walls may be one foot, and their thick- 
nefs nine inches ; the bottom may be paved with brick laid 
flatwile, and the arch turned four inches. If the drain be 
twenty-two inches wide, the fide walls are then to be one 
foot three inches in height, and the red condrudted as be¬ 
fore. If it is fourteen inches wide, the height of the walls 
may be nine inches, and the fweep of the arch four. A 
drain of a yard wide diould have the lame height, and the 
arch turned over it ought to be.nine inches thick. Upon 
the lame principles and proportions may other drains of 
any dze be condrufted. 
The fewers and drains being conffrudted in a manner 
proportioned to the dze of the intended building, the ar¬ 
chitect may next proceed to lay the foundation of the walls. 
Here his firfi care mud be, that the floor of the foundation 
be perfectly fmooth and level. The Italians begin with 
laying over it an even covering of flrong oak plank.and 
Vol. 11 . No. 61. 
E C T tr R E, r r 7 
upon that they lay, with the mod exaft care, the fird 
courfe of the materials. Whether we take this method, 
or begin upon the naked floor, all mud be laid with the 
mod exadt truth by rule and line. When the board plat 
is laid, a courfe-of done is the bed fird bed, and this is to 
be laid without mortar; for lime would make the wood 
decay, which otherwife, in a tolerably good foil, will lad 
forages. After this, all the courfes fhould follow with' 
the fame perfect evennefs and regularity. If the materials 
are brick, they diould be laid on with an equal, and not 
too great, quantity of mortar : if done, they ought to be 
placed regularly, and in the fame fituation in which they 
lay in the quarry for many dones which will bear any 
weight flatwife, and in their natural podtion, are of fuch a 
grain, that they will fplit otherwife. The iefs mortar 
there is in a foundation, the better. Its ufe is to cement 
the bricks and dones together; and the evener they are, 
tl?e lefs will be required for that purpofe. Where mortar 
is ufed to fill up cavities, it becomes part of the wall; and 
not being of equal drength with the folid material, it takes 
from the firmnefs of the building. For the fame reafort, 
nothing can be more abfurd than to fill up a foundation 
with loofe dones or bricks thrown in at random ; and, 
where this is done, the ruin of the building is inevitable. 
Where the foundation of a principal wall is laid upon piles, 
it will be necedary alfo to pile the foundations of the par¬ 
titions, though not fo drongly. 
The thicknefs of foundation-walls in general ought to 
be double that of the walls which they are to fupport. 
The loofer the ground, the thicker the foundation-wall 
ought to be ; and it will require the fame addition alfo in 
proportion to that which is to be railed upon it. The 
plane of the ground mud be perfectly level, that the weight 
may prefs equally every where : for, when it inclines more 
to one fide than another, the wail will fplit. The founda¬ 
tions mud diminidi as they rife, but the perpendicular is 
to be exactly kept in the upper and lower parts of the 
wall; and this caution ought to be obferved all the way- 
up with the fame driCtnefs. In fome ground, the foun¬ 
dation may be arched; which will fave materials and la¬ 
bour, at the fame time that the fuperdruClure has an equal 
fccurity. This practice is peculiarly ferviceable where 
the foundation is piled. As the foundation-walls are to 
diminidi in thicknefs, fo are thofe which are built upon 
them. This is necedary in order to fave expence, but is 
not abfolutely fo to drengthen the wall; for this would 
be no lefs drong though it was continued all the way to the 
top of an equal thicknefs, provided the perpendicular was 
exaCtly kept. In this the ancients were very expert ; for 
we fee, in the remains of their works, walls thus carried 
up to an exorbitant height. The thicknefs and diminu¬ 
tion of walls is in a great meafure arbitrary. In common 
houfes built of brick, tile general diminution from the bot¬ 
tom to the top is one-half the thicknefs at the bottom; the 
beginning is two bricks, then a brick and a half, and laftly 
one brick in thicknefs. In larger edifices, the walls mutt 
be made proportionally thicker; but the diminution is pre- 
ferved much in the fame manner. When dones are ufed, 
regard mud be had to their nature, and the propriety of 
their figures for holding one another. Where the wall is 
to be compofed of two materials, as done and brick, the 
heavied ought always to be placed undermod. 
There is one farther particular regarding the drength of 
a plain wall, and that is, the fortifying its angles. This is 
bed done with good done on each lide, which gives not 
only a great deal of drength, but a great deal of beauty, 
Piladers properly applied are a great d lengthening to waifs. 
Their bed didance is about every twenty feet, and they 
diould rife fix inches from the naked of the wall. A much 
dighter wall of brick, with this adidance, is ftronger than 
a heavier and maffier one built plain. In brick walls of 
every kind, it is alfo a great addition to their drength to 
lay fome chief courfes of a larger and harder matter ; for 
thefe ferve like dnews to keep all the red firmly together, 
and are of great ufe where a wall happens to fink more on 
il h one 
