om the vicinity of Portsmouth; these are good both in quality
and color. Good red bricks are also now made at Ascot, and are being
used to a considerable extent in the metropolis. A strawberry-colored
brick from Luton has been extensively used at Hampstead. It is hard, and
of a color which contrasts well with stone, but not very pleasing used
alone. Glazed bricks of all colors are obtainable. They are usually very
hard and square, and the use of them where an impervious glazed face is
required, as, for example, in a good stable, is better than the
employment of glazed tiles, in the employment of which there is always a
possibility of part of the lining becoming loose or falling off. There
is a difficulty in obtaining a large quantity (of some colors, at least)
exactly uniform in tint. Bricks with a very hard face, but not glazed,
are obtainable. What is called a washing brick is now made in various
colors, adapted for the lining of interiors, and there are hard bricks
of a very pale straw color, known as Beart's patent bricks, made, I
believe, of gault clay, which were some years ago bought up by the Great
Northern Railway in large numbers. These bricks have the peculiarity of
being pierced with holes about 1/2 in. in diameter, passing quite through
the brick, and they are extremely hard, partly because these holes
permit the hot air and smoke in the kiln to approach very near to the
interior of the brick. I am of opinion that the glazed or dull qualities
of hard bricks might with great advantage be often introduced into
London streets. What we want is something that will wash. The rough
surface of stocks or Suffolk facing bricks catches the black in the
London atmosphere and gradually gets dark and dull. A perfectly hard
face is washed clean by every shower. A good many years ago I built a
warehouse with stock bricks, and formed the arches, strings, etc., of
bricks with a very hard face, and, as I expected, the effect of time has
been to make these features stand out far better than when they were
fresh; in fact, the only question is whether they have not now become
too conspicuous. To return to the bricks in the London market: we have
firebricks made of fireclay, and almost vitrified and capable of
standing intense heat. These are used for lining furnaces, ovens, flues,
etc.

Then we have almost, if not quite, as refractory a material in
Staffordshire blue bricks, used--in various forms--for paving channels,
jambs of