“A good method of measuring buildings is to measure first the general dimensions and block out the building on paper at a small scale, then measure up windows, columns, etc., and set off full-size sections of all the mouldings with a strip of thin lead, such as may be had at any whole-sale lead store:  only the thinnest sheet-lead will work, as the thicker leads are too stiff to bend.  The large final drawings can then be made away from the building.  It is important to draw out the building completely at a small scale, however, as it is very annoying when making the final drawing far away from the building to find that some important dimension has been forgotten.

“The ordinary tape stretches so much in long dimensions that it is inaccurate.  It is best to get a tape with a metallic strip in it, and it should be at least fifty feet long in order to take dimensions over all, which is much more accurate than measuring with a short tape from point to point.

“The metric system is very convenient, but it is better for American students to use the English measure that they will have to use in practice, and take the tape over with them, for it is difficult to find them on the Continent.  A sliding measuring-rod is nearly indispensable, and it will be most convenient to carry if it folds up to the length of the imperial drawing pad.  Two large triangles are very useful in getting the projection of mouldings, as they can be held together to form a right angle.”

[Illustration:  XV.  Door of the Madonna di Loreto, Triani, Italy.]

#Books.#

Verona and Other Lectures.  By John Ruskin, D.C.L., LL.D.  New York:  Macmillan & Co., 1894. 8vo, pp. 204, plates xii. $2.50.

The art of Northern Italy has furnished the text for a very considerable part of the writings of Mr. Ruskin, and there is no one writer among those who have ventured to investigate and write upon this extremely engrossing subject whose work has so great an interest for the architect, or in fact is of so much value to him.  It is not necessary to agree with all of Mr. Ruskin’s elaborate theories or to unqualifiedly admire his drawings in order to find much of real value in his books.  No student of architecture can afford not to read “The Stones of Venice,” and there are few books which should take precedence over it in the formation of an architect’s library.

Apropos of the illustrations in the last number of the Brochure series, in the descriptive notices of which we had occasion to refer to Mr. Ruskin, his latest published work will be found interesting.  The title, “Verona and other Lectures,” does not convey a very complete idea of the contents of the book.  None of the five lectures included is strictly architectural in subject matter, and but one, the first, “Verona and its Rivers,” has any direct bearing upon architecture, and this only from the historical side.  The illustrations,