22 SANDSTONE. 



against banks, a valuable species of fencing, much 

 in use in this village ; and for mending of roads. 

 This rug is ragged and stubborn, and will not hew 

 to a smooth face ; but is very durable : yet, as these 

 strata are shallow, and lie deep, large quantities 

 cannot be procured but at considerable expense. 

 Among the blue rags turn up some blocks tinged 

 with a stain of yellow, or rust colour, which seem to 

 be nearly as lasting as the blue ; and every now and 

 then balls of a friable substance, like rust of iron, 

 called rust balls. 



In Wolmer Forest, I see but one sort of stone, 

 called by the workmen sand, or forest stone. This 

 is generally of the colour of rusty iron, and might 

 probably be worked as iron ore ; is very hard and 

 heavy, and of a firm, compact texture, and com- 

 posed of a small roundish crystalline grit, cemented 

 together by a brown, terrene, ferruginous matter ; 

 will not cut without difficulty, nor easily strike fire 

 with steel. Being often found in broad flat pieces, 

 it makes good pavement for paths about houses, 

 never becoming slippery in frost or rain ; is excel- 

 lent for dry walls, arid is sometimes used in build- 

 ings. In many parts of that waste, it lies scattered 

 on the surface of the ground ; but is dug on Weaver's 

 Down, a vast hill on the eastern verge of that forest, 

 where the pits are shallow, and the stratum thin. 



This stone is imperishable. 



From a notion of rendering their work the more 

 elegant, and giving it a finish, masons chip this stone 

 into small fragments about the size of the head of a 

 large nail, and then stick the pieces into the wet 

 mortar along the joints of their freestone walls. This 

 embellishment carries an odd appearance, and has 

 occasioned strangers sometimes to ask us pleasantly, 

 "Whether we fastened our walls together with 

 tenpenny nails ?" 



