MY DEAR JOHN: It will not be necessary for you to send me a stone-heap
or a section of pasture-wall for inspection. I would rather venture an
opinion from your description.

Of course, these walls alone, if solid, as they doubtless must be,
will be cold and damp; they must be furred off within to prevent
moisture from condensing on the walls of the rooms. This furring
should be done with light studs, secured to the floor timbers above
and below, having no connection with the stone walls, the inside of
which may be left quite rough, whatever the "builders in the elder
days of art" might say to such negligence. For greater permanence and
security against fire, instead of wood furrings you may build a lining
of brick, leaving an air space of several inches between it and the
stone, very much in the same way as if the whole were of brick.

You say you would prefer not to build walls as high as a church tower
of smooth cobblestones. Don't; it wouldn't be wise. Still I have seen
them, of more humble dimensions, laid in good cement, as such walls
always should be laid, that seem as firm as unbroken granite. But you
will remember I only advise this mode of building on the condition
that you are not ambitious of height. If you are, by all means curb
your aspirations, or else buy a city house six or seven stories in
the air, where you can gratify your passion for going up and down
stairs. There is the best reason in the world why a tall house in the
country should look grim, gaunt, and awkward; it is thoroughly
inconvenient and out of place. The area of arable land covered by
human habitations does not yet interfere with agricultural products.
So let us spread ourselves freely. When we have learned the beauty and
the strength of co-operation for mutual helpfulness, we shall see the
prevailing mode of constructing houses in cities very much modified.