NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 13 



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 tenpenny nails." l 



1 The western wall of Selborne church is decorated in this manner. Mr. 

 Grant Allen writes : " 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." (Ed. Selborne, p. 18 note.) [R. B. S.] 



Churckj 



