shortcomings must be charged to the imperfect mechanical means at their
disposal. The enclosure walls, partitions, and secondary façades were
upright; and they raised the materials by means of a rude kind of crane
planted on the top. The pylon walls and the principal façades (and
sometimes even the secondary façades) were sloped at an angle which varied
according to the taste of the architect. In order to build these, they
formed inclined planes, the slopes of which were lengthened as the
structure rose in height. These two methods were equally perilous; for,
however carefully the blocks might be protected while being raised, they
were constantly in danger of losing their edges or corners, or of being
fractured before they reached the top (Note 7). Thus it was almost always
necessary to re-work them; and the object being to sacrifice as little as
possible of the stone, the workmen often left them of most abnormal shapes
(fig. 52). They would level off one of the side faces, and then the joint,
instead of being vertical, leaned askew. If the block had neither height
nor length to spare, they made up the loss by means of a supplementary
slip. Sometimes even they left a projection which fitted into a
corresponding hollow in the next upper or lower course. Being first of all
expedients designed to remedy accidents, these methods degenerated into
habitually careless ways of working. The masons who had inadvertently
hoisted too large a block, no longer troubled themselves to lower it back
again, but worked it into the building in one or other of the ways before
mentioned. The architect neglected to duly supervise the dressing and
placing of the blocks. He allowed the courses to vary, and the vertical
joints, two or three deep, to come one over the other. The rough work done,
the masons dressed down the stone, reworked the joints, and overlaid the
whole with a coat of cement or stucco, coloured to match the material,
which concealed the faults of the real work. The walls rarely end with a
sharp edge. Bordered with a torus, around which a sculptured riband is
entwined, they are crowned by the _cavetto_ cornice surmounted by a flat