MODE II. KONITE. 427 



MODE II. KONITE. 



There is a stone universally employed in Distinction, 

 architecture, and which may be regarded as 

 intermediate between marble and limestone. 

 It appears to have been the freestone of the Freestone, 

 middle ages, called ashler when only roughly 

 hewn ; and is also the freestone of Woodward, 

 and many other writers of mineralogy. Mr. 

 Parkinson has recently confirmed the justice of 

 this appellation, by informing us that " free- 

 stone is a compact limestone, of an earthy frac- 

 ture." 



Yet many late writers have inaccurately ap- 

 plied the term freestone to a very different sub- 

 stance, using it as synonymous with sandstone* 

 chiefly indeed with a calcareous cement; though 

 it has also been extended to the argillaceous, 

 and even to the siliceous. The reason given for 

 the name is, that such a stone may be worked 

 in any direction ; nay, Doctor Kidd informs us 

 " that sandstones which yield readily to the 

 chisel, and hence called siliceous freestones, are 

 used in masonry." If the term were thus ex- 

 tended, it might also be applied to granite, which 

 is used in many countries for the commonest 



