aths. They
may be fixed with ornamental wood fillets, or made with screw-holes and
affixed to ceiling joists.

[Illustration: FIG. 18.

Section and Plan of an Enamelled Iron Ceiling.]

Glazed brickwork for the walls of hot rooms, &c., should be specified to
be executed with an extra neat joint, and should bond to less than 12
in. to the foot; otherwise the effect of the unwieldy mortar joints is
clumsy. This applies equally to walling and to arches and vaults. Work
which may pass as fair in ordinary cases, looks coarse and rough in the
glazed interior walls of a bath. In selecting glazed bricks there is
some difficulty in obtaining really delicate tints; much of the work
produced is unfortunately of a very crude colouring.

One portion of the tepidarium, and other bath rooms, admits of being
rendered very attractive; and that is the flooring. Mosaic work is
always pleasing, if it be designed with taste and executed artistically.
Marble and tile mosaics are both good, the former admitting of a
richness of effect quite its own, and the latter of brilliant colouring.
In designing marble-mosaic floors, however, one may well fight shy of
including that senseless, purposeless description which is nowadays so
often employed as a filling-in between borders. I refer to the
heterogeneous jumble of every colour mixed without regard to one
another, and giving at a distance a dirty grey tone, and near at hand an
effect like a gravel walk covered with faded cherry-blossom--to be
flattering. Despite the fact that this method of design is of antique
origin, and has a real classical designation, I cannot but think that it
is to be avoided, and that fillings-in should be made with tesserae of
one tint, or that mosaic should be abandoned altogether.

Given the means, it is easy to render a set of bath rooms elaborate,
with faience and modelled glazed ware, marbles and painted encaustic
tiles, and many other suitable but expensive materials; but for my own
part I prefer to see comparative simplicity in a sudatory chamber,
though by this I do not mean monastic severity of style.

The general air of the frigidarium requires some consideration. It
should have an effect of its own, quite distinct from anything else. It
should have something of the conservatory in it. It should be richly
carpeted, have much woodwork about it, and be pleasant with plants and
laden with the murmur of falling waters. It should be light, certainly;
cheerful,