1 8 The Natural History of Selborne 



roundish crystalline grit, cemented together by a brown, terrene, 

 ferruginous matter ; will not cut without difficulty, nor easily strike 

 fire with steel. Being often found in broad flat pieces, it makes 

 good pavement for paths about houses, never becoming slippery in 

 frost or rain ; is excellent for dry walls, and is sometimes used in 

 buildings. In many parts of that waste it lies scattered on the 

 surface of the ground ; but is dug on Weaver's Down, a vast hill on 

 the eastern verge of that forest, where the pits are shallow and the 

 stratum thin. This stone is imperishable. 



From a notion of rendering their work the more elegant, and 

 giving it a finish, masons chip this stone into small fragments about 

 the size of the head of a large nail, and then stick the pieces into the 

 wet mortar along the joints of their freestone walls ; this embellish- 

 ment carries an odd appearance, and has occasioned strangers some- 

 times to ask us pleasantly, "whether we fastened our walls together 

 with tenpenny nails." * 



1 Walls of this sort still occur at Selborne : there are many close to the church. 

 They are also common at Dorking and in other places on the Greensand area. 

 For an example, see illustration on p. 14. ED. 



