brick houses. In the picture English artisans are shown erecting a small brick structure at Jamestown about the year 1630. It is quite clear from the documentary records and the archeological remains that the colonists not only made their own bricks—and probably many of their roofing tiles—but that the process, as well as the finished product, followed closely the English tradition.

An old account, relating to brick-making in England three hundred years ago, is summarized:

1. Before Christmas we begin to dig the earth and let it lie to mellow till Easter.

2. Then we water the earth well and temper it with a narrow spade.

3. The moulder cuts off a piece of earth, throws it into the mould made of beech, levelling it off with a wooden implement called a strike.

4. The carrier carries the mould to the drying ground, where he adroitly turns it over, laying the bricks on the ground, and lifts up the mould.

5. When the bricks are dry, they carry them to a place where they row them up like a wall. They are covered with straw, till they are dry enough to be carried to the kiln.

6. Then they are stacked in the kiln, a fire kept till they are at the top red fire hot.

7. Then we let them cool, and sell them as we can for as much money as we can get, but usually about 13 or 14 shillings the thousand.

Similar methods may have been used at Jamestown during the seventeenth century.