OF SELBORNE. 9 



This stone is in great request for hearth-stones and the beds 

 of ovens : and in lining of lime-kilns it turns to good account; 

 for the workmen use sandy loam instead of mortar; the sand 

 of which fluxes, d and runs by the intense heat, and so cases 

 over the whole face of the kiln with a strong vitrified coat like 

 glass, that it is well preserved from injuries of weather, and 

 endures thirty or forty years. When chiseled smooth, it 

 makes elegant fronts for houses, equal in colour and grain to 

 the Bath stone ; and superior in one respect, that, when sea- 

 soned, 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 freestone, cutting in all directions; yet has 

 something of a grain parallel with the horizon, and there- 

 fore should not be surbedded, but laid in the same position 

 that it grows in the quarry. 6 On the ground abroad this 

 fire-stone will not succeed for pavements, because, probably, 

 some degree of saltness prevailing within it, the rain tears the 

 slabs to pieces/ Though this stone is too hard to be acted 

 on by vinegar ; yet both the white part, and even the blue rag, 

 ferments strongly in mineral acids. Though the white stone 

 will not bear wet, yet in every quarry at intervals there are 

 thin strata of blue rag, which resist rain and frost ; and are 

 excellent for pitching of stables, paths and courts, and for 

 building of dry walls against banks ; a valuable species of 

 fencing, much in use in this village, and for mending of roads. 

 This rag is rugged 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 



d There may probably be also in the chalk itself that is burnt for lime 

 a proportion of sand : for few chalks are so pure as to have none. 



e To surbed stone is to set it edgewise, contrary to the posture it 

 had in the quarry, says Dr. Plot, Oxfordsh. p. 77. But surbedding does 

 not succeed in our dry walls ; neither do we use it so in ovens, though he 

 says it is best for Teynton stone. 



f " Firestone is full of salts, and has no sulphur : must be close grained, 

 " and have no interstices. Nothing supports fire like salts ; saltsloue 

 " perishes exposed to wet and frost." Plot's Staff, p. 152. 



