The Beauty ajid Use of Irish Building Stones. 



171 



and the customary rates of carriage. The antiquity of the 

 descriptions in the usual works of reference makes it important 

 that quarry-owners and agents should keep the outer world 

 informed at first hand ; for instance, the slates of Ashford, Co. 

 Wicklow, are still quoted in the standard work on building 

 materials published in 1892, while, on the other hand, new 

 materials ma}^ ea.sily escape insertion or adequate recognition. 



Strange as it may appear, it is necessary to prove the ad- 

 vantages of Irish building-stones even in the country of their 

 extraction. The competition, for instance, with the cheap 

 labour of women and children in Belgium makes it difficult to 

 force Irish marbles upon unsentimental and impecunious 

 persons ; but some of the success of foreign materials is due to 

 technical methods of working, and especially to regularity of 

 supply. Then, again, in a metropolis such as Dublin, a healthy 

 variety of materials must be tolerated. No one can wish to 

 replace the beautiful red brick of Merrion-square, one of the 

 glories of the city on a sunny afternoon, by masses of grey 

 Carboniferous limestone, however elegantly carved ; and eveu 

 the much-controverted introduction of terra-cotta, a material 

 that will defy the smoke of I^iverpool or L<ondon, may be best 

 met, not by denying its advantages, but by a search for terra- 

 cotta cla3's in Ireland. 



The virtues of some Irish stones as road-metal call for more 

 adequate recognition. Despite the lamentable absence of 

 steam-rollers, and the usual absence, in consequence, of de- 

 finite form in the surface of an Irish road, the materials in 

 many counties have proved themselves magnificent, and great 

 credit is generally due to the surveyors and to the workmen 

 for the care with which patches of new metal are inserted dur- 

 ing repairs. With the quartzites of Howth and Shankill, as 

 one example, on the very sea-board, one may hope that enter- 

 prise and due representation of their qualities may lead to the 

 adoption of Irish macadam in some of the west English cities. 

 The success of Penmaenmawr in Wales gives one grounds for 

 hope, at any rate. Quartzite and limestone in combination, 

 well rolled in, seems an experiment worth trying, especially 

 when we recollect the good Ary surfaces produced by a mixture 

 of Kentish Rag and Hythe Sandstone in the neighbourhood of 

 Folkestone some years ago. 



(TO BE CONCLUDED.) 



