14 SANDSTONE. 



to a smooth face ; but is very durable : yet, as these 

 strata are shallow, and lie deep, large quantities can- 

 not 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 ; it is very hard and 

 heavy, of a firm, compact texture, and composed of 

 a small roundish crystalline grit, cemented toge- 

 ther 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 excel- 

 lent for dry walls, and is sometimes used in build- 

 ings. In many parts of that waste it lies scat- 

 tered on the surface of the ground ; but it 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 free- 

 stone walls. This embellishment carries an odd 

 appearance, and has occasioned strangers some- 

 times to ask us pleasantly, " Whether we fastened 

 our walls together with tenpenny nails ?" 



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