As we are here speaking of a _new_ house, we need not detail the process followed in repairing an old one. Nor is it necessary so to do even in respect of the processes themselves, for they are nearly the same for old work and new. The principal points of difference are these:--that in old work, greasy and dirty spots are washed with pearl-ash and water, or with turpentine; that the old paint is rubbed smooth with pumice-stone, or, if very rough, burned off; that a smaller number of new coats of paint will suffice; and that a larger proportion of turpentine is used than in new work. Graining and Marbling. We have in the above details confined our attention to that more general and economical kind of house-painting in which a large surface is painted of one uniform colour. But the department of house-painting in which the taste of the workman is more fully developed, is that in which imitations of various species of wood and marble are attempted; these processes are called _graining_ and _marbling_. We may perhaps call this a humble branch of the _fine_ arts, since the workman prepares a _picture_ of a piece of wood or of a slab of marble; but whether this be a correct term or not, it is certain that skill in this branch depends more on taste and observation than on fixed rules. Graining and marbling are sometimes done in oil-paint, but more frequently in _distemper_, that is, with a colour mixed with beer or some other liquid more limpid than oil; in this latter case, as the graining would not have a durable character, it receives one or more coats of varnish. We will endeavour to give a general idea of the mode in which graining and marbling are effected. The kind of wood usually imitated in this way is _oak_, or _wainscot_, as it is more generally called. When this is imitated in oil, the last coat of paint previous to the graining is made of rotten stone, white lead, and linseed oil, and is of a light oak colour. On this is laid the graining colour, which painters call the _megilp_, and which is a thin paint composed of oil, rotten stone, sugar of lead, and white wax. When this has set a little, the painter draws over the surface the teeth of a kind of comb, called the _graining comb_, by which an imitation of the grain of oak is produced; these grained lines, to make the imitation more close, are drawn in a wavy direction. The workman then wraps a little piece of leather round the finger, and delicately wipes off the colour from small spots of various forms, by which the light parts of a piece of oak are imitated. In this state, the grain and the light parts have rather a harsh appearance, to remove which, a soft dry brush is worked over the whole in such a manner as to make the various parts blend with one another. A little Vandyke brown is then mixed up into a smooth paint, and with this the dark veins are imitated, by means of a small brush or pencil.