But what have they done? They have taken as their model a brick set on end. This they have converted into a thing of dingy clapboards with a narrow, low-pitched roof. And the whole they have set upon thin, preposterous brick piers . By the hundreds and thousands these abominable houses cover the bare hillsides, like gravestones in some gigantic and decaying cemetery. On their deep sides they are three, four and even five stories high; on their low sides they bury themselves swinishly in the mud. Not a fifth of them are perpendicular . They lean this way and that, hanging on to their bases precariously . And one and all they are streaked in grime, with dead and eczematous patches of paint peeping through the streaks.

可是，他们实际上是怎么做的呢?他们把直立的砖块作为造房的模式，造出了一种用肮脏的护墙板围成的不伦不类的房屋，屋顶又窄又平，而且整个地安放在一些单薄的、奇形怪状的砖垛上。这种丑陋不堪的房屋成百上千地遍布于一个个光秃秃的山坡上，就像是一些墓碑竖立在广阔荒凉的坟场上。这些房屋高的一侧约有三四层，甚至五层楼高，而低的一侧看去却像一群埋在烂泥潭里的猪猡。垂直式的房屋不到五分之一，大部分房屋都是那样东倒西歪，摇摇欲坠地固定在地基上。每幢房屋上都积有一道道的尘垢印痕，而那一道道 垢痕的间隙中，还隐隐约约露出一些像湿疹痂一样的油漆斑痕。

Now and then there is a house of brick. But what brick! When it is new it is the color of a fried egg. When it has taken on the patina of the mills it is the color of an egg long past all hope or caring. Was it necessary to adopt that shocking color? No more than it was necessary to set all of the houses on end. Red brick, even in a steel town, ages with some dignity. Let it become downright black, and it is still sightly , especially if its trimmings are of white stone, with soot in the depths and the high spots washed by the rain. But in Westmoreland they prefer that uremic yellow, and so they have the most loathsome towns and villages ever seen by mortal eye.

偶尔也可以看到一幢砖房，可那叫什么砖啊!新建的时候，它的颜色像油煎鸡蛋，然而一经工厂排放出来的烟尘熏染，蒙上一层绿锈时，它的颜色便像那早已无人问津的臭蛋一样了。难道一定得采用这种糟糕的颜色吗?这就与把房屋都建成直立式一样没看攀要。若是用红砖造房，便可以越古老陈旧越气派，即使在钢铁城镇中也是如此。红砖就算被染得漆黑，看起来还是能够使人悦目，尤其是如果用白石镶边，经雨水一洗刷，凹处烟垢残存，凸处本色外露，红黑映衬，更觉美观。可是在威斯特摩兰县，人们却偏偏喜欢用那血尿般的黄色，因此便有了这种世界上最丑陋不堪、最令人恶心的城镇和乡村。