12 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



in the quarry. 1 On the ground abroad this freestone will 

 not succeed for pavements, because, probably some degree 

 of saltness prevailing within it, the rain tears the slabs to 

 pieces. 2 Though the stone is too hard to be acted on by 

 vinegar, yet both the white part, and even the blue rag, 

 ferments strongly in mineral acids. Though the white 

 stone will not bear 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 expense. 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 generally 

 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 scattered on the surface of the ground ; but is dug 

 on Weavers Down, a vast hill on the eastern verge of that 



1 To surbed stone is to set it edgewise, contrary to the posture it had in the 

 quarry, says Dr. Plot, " Oxfordshire," p. 77. But surbedding does not succeed in 

 our dry walls ; neither do we use it so in ovens, though he says it is best for 

 Teynton stone. [G. W.] 



1 " Firestone is full of salts, and has no sulphur : must be close-grained, and 

 have no interstices. Nothing supports fire like salts ; saltstone perishes exposed 

 to wet and frost." Plot's " Staff.," p. 152. [G. W.] 



