f rtmv ifr-1 



LETTER IV 



TO THE SAME 



As in a former letter the freestone of this place has been 

 only mentioned incidentally, I shall here become more 

 particular. 



This stone is in great request for hearth-stones, and the 

 beds of ovens : and in lining of lime-kilns it turns to 

 good account ; for the workmen use sandy loam instead 

 of mortar ; the sand of which fluxes, 1 and runs by the intense 

 heat, and so cases over the whole face of the kiln with a 

 strong vitrified coat-like glass, that it is well preserved from 

 iujuries of weather, and endures thirty or forty years. 

 When chiselled smooth, it makes elegant fronts for houses, 

 equal in colour and grain to the Bath stone ; and superior 

 in one respect, that, when seasoned, it does not scale. 

 Decent chimney-pieces are worked from it of much closer 

 and finer grain than Portland ; and rooms are floored with 

 it ; but it proves rather too soft for this purpose. It is a 

 freestone, cutting in all directions ; yet has something of a 

 grain parallel with the horizon, and therefore should not 

 be surbedded, but laid in the same position that it grows 



1 There may probably be also in the chalk itself that is burnt for lime a pro- 

 portion of sand, for few chalks are so pure as to have none. [G. W.] 



