good order, and to maintain all copings and other projections intended
to bar the access of water coming down from above, and to stop the
overflowing of gutters and stack pipes, which soon soaks the wall
through and through.

Of course, if there is a failure of foundations, brickwork, as was
pointed out earlier, becomes affected at once. But if these be good, and
the materials used be sound ones, and if the other precautions just
recommended be taken, it will last strong and sturdy for an immense
length of time. In some cases, as for example in the Roman ruins, it has
stood for 1,500 years under every possible exposure and neglect, and
still shows something of a sturdy existence after all, though sadly
mutilated. If we now return to the question, What can be well done in
brickwork? no better answer can be given than to point to what has been
and is being done, especially in London and within our own reach and
observation.

Great engineering works, such as railway viaducts, the lining of railway
tunnels, the piers and even the arches of bridges, sewage works, dock
and wharf walls, furnace chimneys, and other works of this sort are
chiefly done in brickwork. And notwithstanding that iron is far more
used by the engineer for some purposes and concrete for others now than
formerly, still there is a great field for brickwork. The late Mr.
Brunel, who was fond of pushing size to extremes, tried how wide a span
he could arch over with brickwork. And I believe the bridge which
carries the G.W.R. over the Thames at Maidenhead has the widest arch he
or any other engineer has successfully erected in brick. This arch has,
it is stated, a span of 128 ft. It is segmental, the radius being 169
ft., and the rise from springing to crown 24 ft., and the depth of the
arch 5 ft. 3 in. Nowadays, of course, no one would dream of anything but