. Brick and marble in the middle ages: notes of tours in the north of Italy . r for itself, and there is therefore cousiderahlediversity in their work. They are all unlike, and far superiorto what remains to us of ancient brickwork in England, for Ineed hardly say that, with a rare exception here and there,and in comparatively small districts, brick was not used inEngland between the time of the Eomans and the fifteenthcentury, and, when used afterwards, was seldom remarkableeither for any singular beauty or originality of this matter, therefore, we are obliged to go to the Contin
. Brick and marble in the middle ages: notes of tours in the north of Italy . r for itself, and there is therefore cousiderahlediversity in their work. They are all unlike, and far superiorto what remains to us of ancient brickwork in England, for Ineed hardly say that, with a rare exception here and there,and in comparatively small districts, brick was not used inEngland between the time of the Eomans and the fifteenthcentury, and, when used afterwards, was seldom remarkableeither for any singular beauty or originality of this matter, therefore, we are obliged to go to the Continentfor information. Italian brickwork is remarkable as being almost alwaysexecuted with nothing but red bricks, with occasional butrare use of stonework; the bricks for the ordinary wallingare generally rather larger than ours, in no way superior intheir quality, and always built coarsely with a wide joint ofmortar. Those used for windows, doorways, and generallywhere they were required to attract attention and to beornamental, were made of much finer clay and moulded with. ^- STBING-COURSE—PALACE OF JURISCONSULTS, CREMONA. the greatest care and skill. The transepts and campanile ofCremona Cathedral are instances of red brick used withoutany intermixture of stone save in the shafts of the windows,and their efiect is certainly very grand. The mouldings areelaborate, and the way in which cusping is formed singularlysuccessful. This, it must be observed, was not usually done 392 ITALIAN BRICKWORK. [Chap. XIV- by means of bricks moulded in the form of a cusp, but withordinary bricks, built with the same radiating lines as thoseof the arch to which they belonged, and cut and rubbed tothe necessary outline. Sometimes, as, , in the windowsat Mantua,^ which are some of the very best I have ever seen,the points of the cusps and key-stones of the arches areformed in pieces of stone, the alternation of which with thedeep-red hue of the bricks jjroduces the most satisfactoryeffe
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