of the eighteenth
century has been preserved for us at Mount Vernon, the home of George
Washington.

Mount Vernon was not so fine nor so costly a house as many others built
earlier in the century, such as Lower Brandon--two centuries and a half
old--and Upper Brandon, the homes of the Harrisons; Westover, the home
of the Byrds; Shirley, built in 1650, the home of the Carters; Sabin
Hall, another Carter home, is still standing on the Rappahannock with
its various and many quarters and outbuildings, and is a splendid
example of colonial architecture.

As the traveller came north from Virginia through Pennsylvania, "the
Jerseys," and Delaware, the negro cabins and detached kitchen
disappeared, and many of the houses were of stone and mortar. A clay
oven stood by each house. In the cities stone and brick were much used,
and by 1700 nearly all Philadelphia houses had balconies running the
entire length of the second story. The stoop before the door was
universal.

For half a century nearly all New England houses were cottages. Many had
thatched roofs. Seaside towns set aside for public use certain reedy
lots between salt-marsh and low-water mark, where thatch could be freely
cut. The catted chimneys were of logs plastered with clay, or platted,
that is, made of reeds and mortar; and as wood and hay were stacked in
the streets, all the early towns suffered much from fires, and soon laws
were passed forbidding the building of these unsafe chimneys; as brick
was imported and made, and stone was quarried, there was certainly no
need to use such danger-filled materials. Fire-wardens were appointed
who peered around in all the kitchens, hunting for what they called foul
chimney hearts, and they ordered flag-roofs and wooden chimneys to be
removed, and replaced with stone or brick ones. In Boston every
housekeeper had to own a fire-ladder; and ladders and buckets were kept
in the church. Salem kept its "fire-buckets and hook'd poles" in the
town-house. Soon in all towns each family owned fire-buckets made of
heavy leather and marked with the owner's name or initials. The entire
town constituted the fire company, and the method of using the
fire-buckets was this. As soon as an alarm of fire was given by shouts
or bell-ringing, every one ran at once towards the scene of the fire.
All who owned buckets carried them, and if any person was delayed even
for a few minutes, he flung his fire-buckets from the window into the
street, wh