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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 ex- 

 pense. Among the blue rags turn up some blocks 

 tinged with a stain of yellow, or rust colour, which 

 seem to be nearly as lasting as the blue; and every 

 now and then balls of a friable substance, like rust of 

 iron, called rust balls. 



In Wolmer Forest I see but one sort of stone, called 

 by the workmen sand, or forest, stone. This is gene- 

 rally of the colour of rusty iron, and might probably be 

 worked as iron ore ; is very hard and heavy, and of a 

 firm compact texture, and composed of a small 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 scat- 

 tered 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 

 embellishment carries an odd appearance, and has 

 occasioned strangers sometimes to ask us pleasantly,. 

 " whether we fastened our walls together with ten- 

 penny nails?" 



