rs, brings within the province of the art every structure
which combines with practical utility beauty of design and execution,
from the humblest cottage to the most dignified temple or palace.
Suitability of material and harmony with its surroundings are among the
minor factors that give to a building vitality of character and
contribute to its enduring value, a value enhanced by its reflection of
the needs and aspirations of those by whom and for whom it was erected.

Wood appears to have been the earliest material used for the building of
a home when out-of-door dwellings took the place of the caves that were
the first shelters of primitive man. At Joigny in France there still
exist examples of what are supposed to be the most ancient of all such
dwellings, namely circular holes, locally known as _buvards_, in which
the trunk of a tree had been fixed, the branches plastered over with
clay forming the roof of a simple but rain-proof refuge. Huts of wattle
and hurdle work dating from prehistoric times have also been preserved,
some rising from the ground, others from platforms resting on piles sunk
in the beds of lakes. These were in their time superseded by stronger
structures, with walls made of squared beams piled up horizontally and
fastened together at the corners with wooden pegs; the roof being formed
of roughly sawn planks. Out of such primeval houses as these were
evolved in the course of centuries the picturesque half-timbered
cottages of mediaeval Europe and the quaint wooden churches of Norway
such as the characteristic one at Hitterdal.

Limestone, granite, and sandstone were used for building at a very
remote period in much the same way as wood, large blocks, fresh from the
quarry, of all manner of different shapes, being piled up horizontally
or stood on edge, no cement being employed, though in certain cases
crushed stone was used to fill up the spaces between the blocks. To
walls or buildings of which courses of undressed stone were the only
materials, the name of Cyclopean has been given because of the erroneous
belief that it was originated by the Cyclopes, an imaginary race of
giants, supposed to have lived in Thrace, a province of ancient Greece.

Bricks, that is to say, dried blocks of clay, were used at a very early
date as a supplement to or substitute for wood and stone for building
purposes. The most ancient bricks were not subjected to artificial heat
but were simply exposed to the sun, and