crown them with semi-circles or pointed Gothic arches. Leave out the
corners of the piers in building them up; introduce belts of brick
laid in various positions and of different colors, if you can get
them, as I trust you may. Indeed, this very season, a brickmaker has
reported himself prepared to furnish black bricks and buff, red bricks
and gray, all of good and regular standing. You may be sure I gave him
my blessing, and invited him to press on. I do not know whether he
will prove to be the coming man in this department, but whoever brings
a greater variety of brick in form and color within reasonably easy
reach will do a good work that shall surely have its reward; for brick
houses we must have, ugly ones we won't have, and rich decorations of
stone we cannot afford for common use. Meantime, if you can do no
better, do not hesitate to use brick that have been treated to a bath
of hot tar. They may look old-fashioned, by and by. No matter; an old
fashion, if it is a good one, is more to be admired for its age than
despised. It is only by reason of its falseness and inconvenience that
it becomes absurd.

In the same category with colored bricks (indeed, they are a sort of
spiritualized bricks) are the brilliant-hued encaustic tile that are
finding their way hither across the Atlantic. Let us hope that the
greatest country in the world will not long send three thousand miles
for its building materials. A variety of forms and sizes of bricks we
may easily have when we demand it in earnest. Beyond question there is
room for almost unlimited exercise of fancy in this direction. We only
need the taste to design appropriate shapes and to use them aright.
Mr. Ruskin mentions certain brick mouldings as being among the
richest in Italy. The matter of size relates rather to construction
than ornament, but it is very important here. I think it will some
time seem as unreasonable to make brick of but one size and pattern as