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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[March, 



cinque cento style, and which cnnsisled in inlaying the forms of flowers or 

 figures in different coloured marbles, for costly chimney pieces or other works 

 of the kind, which possessed a beauty in design much in advance of the com- 

 mon or general use at its fiVst introduction. Jlany such examples of the 

 working of marble are met with in Ireland. At the present day the use to 

 which marble is generally applied is varied ; but, with the exception of statu- 

 ary, it IS extensively used but for very few purposes, amongst which may be 

 stated the construction of chimney pieces, mural tablets, flooring ornamental 

 slabs, hc.irth-stones, vases, and in some few instances staircases and columns. 

 Its most extensive use is, however, for chimney pieces and mural tablets. 



For most of the purposes stated the marbles of Italy are still imported for 

 use in Ireland, and it thus more immediately concerns ihe Geological Society, 

 in the practical consideration of their pursuits, to investigate the quality of 

 the marble productions of the country, in order that the professional archi- 

 tect miy be enabled to avail himself of such information and apply Ihem in 

 the designs entrusted to his execution. 



Although the use of marble or ornamental stone in internal decoration is 

 as yet very limited, there can be but little doubt that with the advancing 

 improvement of the country marble will hereafter be more extensively 

 brought into use. and made to contribute both to the ornament and solidity 

 of our edifices much beyond the present practice : and there is nu doubt that 

 with greater use much improvement would be made in the mode of working 

 the material. To those who may be of opinion that the labour of converting 

 the material to use may be an impediment to its more general adoption, it 

 may lie proper to make a comparison between the labour encountered in com- 

 pleting the almost innumerable sculptures which lemain to us of ancient 

 Egypt, worked out of the hardest basalts, granites, or poxphyritic rocks, and 

 the diflieulties encountered by artists in the use of marble rocks, the difficul- 

 ties bearing about the same relative proportion as the use of marb'e would to 

 that of plaster. The use of marble at the present day, and for the purposes 

 to which it is most commonly applied, is very different from the practice of 

 a former age. Every one must be familiar with the ordinary mode in which 

 marble is applied in the construction of common chimney pieces, consisting 

 of nothing more than the division of Ihe block into a number of slabs, which, 

 by the aid of plaster of Paris and iron holilfasts, are secured together in 

 imitation of a solid mass. However sufficient this may be for ordinary pur- 

 poses, it is certainly very inferior to the construction from the s: lid endur- 

 ing stone. In all the ancient domestic buildings of the country we fiml the 

 solid chimney pieces constrncted of limestone or dark marbles of the locality, 

 and where undisturbed these are generally still in a sound and perfect slate. 

 Old street buildings in the west of Ireland, and at Kilmallock in particular, 

 present examples of ihis construclion, and possess a very pleasing outline. 

 Instances will very often occur in country mansions or public buildings in 

 the vicinity of which local marbles are attainable, in which such construc- 

 tions might be imitated with great economy and eficct, and where f r many 

 architectural purposes it might with much advantage be very extensively 

 applied. 



The physical or exiernal character of the marbles constitutes the chief con- 

 sideration with reference t'> their use for decoration or ornamental architec- 

 ture, their colour and internal structure being the most important. Their 

 chemical character has reference more to the facility with which they may 

 be converted into use, and their capability of receiving and retaining a cer- 

 tain polish. In their simplest and purest state, marbles chiefly consist of 

 carbonate of lime, which is of a white colour; the wdiitest kind, however, is 

 frequently associated wilh quartz or silex, which more or less deteriorates it. 

 This is more or less united both chemically and mechanically in various ways 

 with nearly all the marbles. The variations in colour arise chiefly from acci- 

 dental causes, in the greater or less admixture of carbon, or the stains of 

 various metallic oxides, or the sectional outlines of embedded fossils. Mag- 

 nesia enters largely into the serpentine variety of marble. The mi re clirys- 

 talline and least earthy marbles are the least durable. The compact or finely 

 granular crystalline marbles being superior to those which are largely crystal- 

 line or of a slaty texture. Almost all the varieties burn into quick lime; 

 several of them, however, exfoliate in the conversion before they become 

 caustic, and fall into sand when exposed to the ordinary mode of separating 

 the carbonic acid ; such qualities are, therefore, very inferior for ordinary 

 cement, as they make a costly and meagre mortar ; it is, however, to iheir 

 use as materials for decoration that the present observations are chiefly in- 

 tended to relate. 



The colours of the marbles of Ireland are almost as numerous as those ob- 

 tained from Italy. The dark colours vary from jet black to daik dove colour, 

 purple, blue, and grey. The light colo irs vary from the pure snow-white, 

 to the celined, cream coloured, pink, and light grey. The variegated consist 

 of the serpentine, black and white veined, mottled, and those marked with 

 fossil organic remains. The serpentine is here included, from its common use 

 for Ihe purposes to which marble is applied, and from its being so commonly 

 called the •' pieen marble." although it is not, strictly speaking, a marble. 

 The black marbles, which are those of most value in Ireland, are extensively 



met with, and belong to the formation familiarly known as the lower lime» 

 stone. The merchantable beds of the best quality are met with in the coun- 

 ties Galway, Limerick, Carlow and Kilkenny ; in the counties of Mayo and 

 Waterford black marble is also met with. At the former places they have 

 been extensively worked. 



The best quarries are considered to be those close to the town of Galway, 

 near the bank of Lough Corrib. It occurs there in three beds, varying from 

 about 9 to 12 inches in thickness. One of these is called the London bed, 

 most of the black marble raised from it being exported to London ; blocks are 

 raised from it of an average size of about 5 to 10 feet in length, and 4 to 5 

 feet in width ; blocks of the size of 20 feet long may be raised. Some in 

 lengths of 1(3 feet have been exported, and converted at the Esher-street 

 marble works in London into a magnificent staircase for tne Uuke of Hamil- 

 ton, in Scotland ; the wide steps, large landings, and solid carved balus- 

 trades being formed of ibis marble worked to a beautiful jet black polish ; 

 and, doubtless, when brilliantly lighted, and surrounded by various other 

 brilliant accessories appertaining to a palatial residence, will produce an efl'cct 

 of princely grandeur which to a contemplative mind would originate reflec- 

 tions on its present use, and the countless centuries it has laid dormant in its 

 native beds, where it has been protected by the overlaying limestone from 

 the violent disturbance which its broken and rugged surface exhibits; nor in 

 a less degree would it originate reflection on the rude labours of those who, 

 ignorant of its destiny, liave raised it from its native bed, and the numerous 

 hands and skilful artists it has given employment to in its passage to its pre- 

 sent destinalion. The marble beds are covered in the new quarries by about 

 twenty feet of limestone, the raising of which adds much to the expense of 

 obtaining it, although a considerable sale occurs of the limestone for common 

 building purposes. Except near the marble beds the quarrying of it is eflecicd 

 by gunpowder. A considerable quantity of this marble is sawn by water 

 power into slabs, and exported from Galway in that state to England and 

 America. These marble beds most likely embrace a considerable area, aud 

 also continue under the water of Lough Corrib, with which they are now 

 nearly on a level. At Oughlerard, the western extremity of the limestone 

 formation, and in several other parts of it, similar marble beds arc met with 

 and worked ; those at Oughterard, in the opinion of the marble workers in 

 London, contain more or less silica, which renders them less valuable. At 

 Limerick considerable quantities of black marble are raised, and both used in 

 the locality and exported. At Carlow and Kilkenny very fine black marble 

 is raised ; at Kilkenny the best beds, wdiich were very thin, have, I am in- 

 formed, been nearly exhausted. Most of the marble obtained from Kilkenny 

 abounds with shells, and which become more marked and conspicuous as the 

 marble becomes dry and exposed. Chimney-pieces made from the Kilkenny 

 marble are to be met with in most parts of Ireland and are familiarly known, 

 an extensive use of this marble having at one time prevailed ; that wdiidi is 

 a jet black and free from shells is now more generally esteemed. The polish 

 of black marble is considerably affected by dampness, and is much preserved 

 and improved by being kept dry. 



Wherever the black marble heds are met wilh they are assorted with the 

 limestone beds, and the difference in quality appears almost accidental ; some 

 of the over or underlying beds often present a stroi g contrast in the quality 

 of the stone. lu other places there is a gradation in character from the ad- 

 joining ordinary limestone to the fine marble. In the impure limestone for- 

 mation of the calp series beds of black marble are frequent. They are gene- 

 rally more or less marked with fossils, and inferior to those beds belonging 

 to the lower or light-coloured limestone formations, and seldom receive a 

 good polish. Wherever the limestone formation prevails in which the marble 

 beds occur, the economy of raising it is dependant on the depth of overlaying 

 rock or soil wh-ch requires to he removed, and of the demand which exists in 

 the neighbourhood for the common rock, either for masonry or burning into 

 lime. In some localities the limestone rock itself more than repays the cost 

 of removing it; and in those localities where this formation prevails these 

 considerations and the quality of the marble beds determine tlie economy of 

 raising it. Except at Galway and Limerick, where much of it is exported, it 

 is almost solely used in the surrounding Iccaliiies for ordinary purposes, and 

 most extensively for large grave stones, for which purpose it is sawn into 

 slabs of three or four inches thick, and fur this the demand is very consider- 

 able. The best qualities, however, are seldom so used. 



Daric grey and dark mctlled grey marbles are met with chiefly in the King's 

 County anci several parls of the county of Cork. Near Tullamore marble is 

 obtained in large blocks capable of receiving a fine polish, and considerable 

 use is made of it lor chimney-pieces and work of that kind. The limestone 

 around Cork produces easy working marble of a light grey or dove colour, 

 and more or less mottled, and receives a good polish. In the primary dis- 

 tricts of the county Donegal a light grey and bluish-grey coloured marble, 

 of close grain, is met with to a great extent ; it is, however, most of it, hard 

 to work from the quantily ol silex it ci ntains. The same kind, and of a 

 bluish tint, is also met with very frequently in Connemara. Marble of this 

 description is common to most primary districts— it is compact in texture, 



