itself, so pleasing in
scale, color and texture, and so completely in harmony with the natural
landscape. But to a far greater extent it is due to the fact that its
predominant lines are horizontal, the line of repose and stability.
Ledge stone, long and narrow, laid up in broken range, with the top and
bottom beds approximately level, but with end joints as the stone works
naturally, has an even more marked horizontal effect than brick,
clap-boarded or shingled walls that tends to a surprising degree to
simulate the impression of greater breadth of the entire mass.

Such matters as color, surface texture and the bond or pattern formed by
the shape of the stones and their arrangement in the wall are the
refinements of stonework; the essentials are strength and durability of
the stone itself and stability of the wall. And this stability should be
apparent as well as actual. The integrity of stonework depends upon its
ability to stand alone, and nothing except high-cost surfaced stone is
so readily conducive to handsome, honest masonry as the natural ledge
stone of greater Philadelphia. A consistent wall should be of sound
construction without the aid of mortar, the mission of which is to chink
the joints and make the structure weather-tight.

Many different examples of stonework, both the pointed and unpointed,
stand virtually side by side for comparison about Philadelphia. Several
methods of pointing have been employed. There is the flush pointing and
the ridge or weathered type commonly known as Colonial or "barn"
pointing. Of them all, however, a method of laying and pointing
generally referred to as the Germantown type has been most widely
favored. It lends itself particularly well to the Colonial style of
house now so popular, the broad lines of the white pointing bringing the
gray stone into pleasing harmony with the white woodwork.

The pointing itself is much like the Colonial or "barn" pointing already
referred to,--the wide open joints being filled with mortar brought well
to the surface of the stones and smoothed off by the flat of the trowel
with little regard to definiteness of line, after which about one-fourth
of the width of the pointing is cut sharply away at the bottom so as to
leave a sloping weathered edge considerably below the center of the
joint. This is sometimes left as cut, in order to preserve a difference
in texture, or is gone over with a trowel, either free hand or along a
straightedge, to