158 LETTER VlL 



talked over this affair with a neighbouring Cler- 

 gyman, who had Hved many years upon the 

 JVoidds : He readily affented to the latter Solu- 

 tion, and affured me, that he himfelf, had now 

 and then met with live Toads in the Sand-ftone, 

 which grows on thofe Woulds : But indeed I did 

 not look upon that as fo itrange a thing ; for their 

 Sand-Hone is fome of it fo foft and porous, that 

 it fcaree deferves the name of Stone. 



9. But farther ; Though I might quote Na- 

 turalifts, who allow, that Stone grows a-pace 

 about Oxfoi-d^ yet I fhall reft myfelf con- 

 tented with exhibiting one clear Inftance, that 

 fell under my own cognizance, in regard to it y 

 viz. That when ^.eejis-College^ in Oxford, (of 

 which I was a Member) was about raifing that 

 Wing, which reaches from the Library to High- 

 Street y the Labourers in digging down, met with 

 a fpringy place, of five or fix yards long in one 

 fpot, where the Foundation was to be laid, about 

 three or four yards below the furface of the 

 ground ; upon which Mr. T'onuiifend^ the Archi- 

 tedl, ordered, Heart-of-Oak Piles, as thick as 

 one*s thigh, to be rammed down, and fet clofe 

 together, (as they do Elm Piles at Amjlerdam^ 

 and indeed all other parts almoft in Holland^ on 

 fuch occafions) on purpofe to fecure the Founda- 

 tion there. I afked him, whether it would not 

 have anfwered his end better, to have arched 



thofe 



