It was in the use of bricks that the Dutch were especially successful. Qualified by experience gained through years of experiment, their achievements were dexterous and often daring. They were thoroughly at home with brickwork, alive to its restrictions as well as its possibilities, and they handled it in a spontaneous and reasonable way. All the features and details of some buildings had to be suitably designed for execution in this not very pliable material--gables (page 21), windows, doorways (shown above), decoration, mouldings and traceries. Problems such as these, definitely existing, were satisfactorily solved. The craftsmen thought in brickwork, as it were, and forms were more or less dictated by the means available for carrying them out. Not that stone was ignored; on the contrary, it was doubtless used when it could be obtained, as our illustrations plainly show. Thus, it was employed not only for ornamental details but often for the entire structures. Wood had its uses too, as may be seen in the half-timbered houses at Dordrecht or the wooden-fronted ones at Gorinchem (Gorcum), illustrated opposite; and plaster entered into the construction of many country buildings. But the prevailing conditions brought about an advanced development of brickwork and through it the vital building tradition was evolved. The old bricks themselves were particularly well shaped and the proportion of height to length gave a long and narrow appearance. How narrow they actually were will be realised when it is stated that it not infrequently happens we find them no more than 1-1/4 inches high. Some of the sizes noted are 1-1/4 inches by 6-3/4 inches to 7 inches at Workum; 1-1/2 inches by 7 inches at Breda (page 24); 1-1/2 inches by 8-1/2 inches, and 1-3/4 inches by 7 inches to 8-1/2 inches at Haarlem; and 2 inches by 9 inches at 's Hertogenbosch. They were laid with five, six, or seven courses to the foot, and sometimes the door and window openings were formed with smaller sized bricks than those used for the main walling. It was only rarely that comparatively large bricks were employed. Some may be seen in the walls of the old Abbey at Middelburg, and "Thvis van Leeninge" (page 25), situated in the same town, has bricks measuring 2-1/2 inches by 9-1/2 inches; while a building at Franeker, in Friesland, is carried out in unusually large bricks, which vary in size from 3 inches to 3-1/2 inches by 10-1/2 inches to 11-1/2 inches. The joints are widest in the older work and were either finished with dark mortar, no lighter in tone than the bricks, or were raked out and pointed up with light mortar. The bond almost universally adopted was that known by the name of "English" and not, as is often erroneously stated, "Flemish." English bond consists of alternate courses of headers and stretchers; that is to say, one course of bricks, all placed longways, upon a course all laid endways, and so continuously up the wall. Flemish bond, rarely to be seen in Holland,