IV.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



tliirty or forty years. When chiselled smooth, it makes elegant 

 fronts for houses, equal in colour and grain to the Bath stone ; 

 and superior in one respect, that, when seasoned, it does not 

 scale. Decent chimney-pieces are worked from it of much 

 closer and finer grain than Portland ; and rooms are floored with 

 it ; but it proves rather too soft for this purpose. It is a free- 



(JH.BKRT WHITE'S HOUSK, NOW THK HKSIPKNCK OF PKOKLSSOII BKI.L. 



stone, cutting in all directions; yet has something of a grnin 

 parallel with the horizon, and therefore should not be surbcdde.d 

 that is, set edgewise, contrary to its position in the quarry 

 but laid in the same position that it occupies there. On the 

 ground abroad this fire-stone will not succeed for pavements, 

 because, probably, some degree of saltness prevailing within it, 

 VOL. I. c 



