XL] SUGAR SANDSTONES. 271 



gravel-pit, to mingle with other flints fresh from the 

 chalk. 



I said jusfc now that I had proof that a great tract 

 of the chalk-hills which are now bare, was once covered 

 with sand and gravel. Here, in the presence of these 

 dark pebbles, is a proof. But I have another, and a 

 yet more curious one. 



For our gravel-pit, if it be, will possibly yield us 

 another, and a more curious object. You most of you 

 have seen, I dare say, large stones, several feet long, 

 taken out of these pits. In the gravels and sands at 

 Pirbright they are so plentiful that they are quarried 

 for building-stone. And good building-stone they 

 make; being exceedingly hard, so that no weather 

 will wear them away. They are what is called saccha- 

 rine (that is, sugary) sandstone. If you chip off a bit, 

 you find it exactly like fine whity-brown sugar, only 

 intensely hard. Now these stones have become very 

 famous ; for two reasons. First, the old Druids used 

 them to build their temples. Second, it is a most 

 puzzling question where they came from. 



First. They were used to build Druid temples. 



If you go to the further lodge of Dogmersfield Park, 

 which opens close to the Barley-mow Inn, you will see 

 there several of them, about five feet high each, set 

 up on end. They run in a line through the plantation 

 past the lodge, along the park palings ; one or two are 

 in an adjoining field. They are the remains of a double 

 line ; an avenue of stones, which has formed part of an 

 ancient British temple. 



I know no more than that : of that I am certain. 



But if you go to the Chalk Downs of Wiltshire, 



