any reference to their composition or proportions, and then try to
conceal the poverty and awkwardness of the structure by pinning up
preposterous window-caps, hanging horrible brackets under the eaves
that must always be in doubt whether they support the cornice or are
supported by it, fixing fantastic verge-boards to the gables, and
covering the roof with wooden knick-knacks that mock consistency and
defy description. Look rather to the materials at your command, and,
whatever they may be, try to dispose them in such way that, while each
part performs a legitimate, necessary service, you shall still have
variety and harmony.

Because I have suggested building your main walls of natural undressed
stone, you must not attempt to construct them of that alone. The main
corners, the door and window jambs, the caps and sills, cannot well be
made of these rough hard heads and cobbles that are scattered over the
fields, or from quarry chips. And here will arise the question of
cost. It would seem decidedly grand to use for the corners
substantial blocks of hewn stone,--sandstone, granite, marble, or
porphyry,--channelled and chamfered, rock-faced, tooled, rubbed, or
decorated; key-stones and voussoirs embellished with your monogram or
enriched by any other charming device you choose to invent; bands of
encaustic tile, brilliant in color and pattern, belts of sculptured
stone, and historic tablets,--if you fancy and can afford them. Unless
your ship is heavily freighted with Australian gold or African
diamonds, by all means dispense with the cut stone, and use brick for
the corners, caps, and jambs, and some good flag-stones broken into
strips of suitable width and thickness for the sills and belt-courses.
This will give you a contrast in color (unless you have the reddest of
red sandstone for the walls), the utmost economy and durability of
construction, and a whole effect very likely better than that of the
stone. These brick dressings may be light, especially the jambs; but
the corners, at least, should be laid in such fashion as to bind well
into the stone walls, and if of considerable height, should be
strengthened by belts of stone, or iron anchors running through the
brick and extending into the main wall several feet each way. Any
large blank surface may be relieved by a little ingenuity in the
selection of the stones for the main walls, introducing, perhaps, some
of regular shapes and size, the raised mortar, which ma