182 WHAT WE OWE TO OUR COAL-FIELDS. 



something more than, a mere coincidence that in the coal- 

 formation they should have been associated in such close 

 proximity and accessible abundance. Had there been no 

 other rocks in the carboniferous series save these three, the 

 gifts of our coal-fields would have been incalculable; how 

 much more their value when other products, all useful and 

 abundant, can be raised from the same system, from the 

 same shaft, and in course of the same mining operations ! 



SANDSTONES of great beauty and durability, like those 

 of Edinburgh, St Andrews, Stirling, Glasgow, Newcastle, 

 Leeds, and other localities, are obtained in inexhaustible 

 supplies from the Coal-formation; and when the importance 

 of substantial and elegant edifices is duly considered, these 

 building-stones must be ranked among the more valuable 

 of its products. Taking Edinburgh, Glasgow, and New- 

 castle as examples, the fitness, beauty, and durability of the 

 coal -measure sandstones for architectural purposes must 

 stand unquestioned; and, considering the readiness with 

 which they can now be carried by railway to all parts of 

 the island, the rapid extension of their employment may be 

 safely predicted. Nor is it merely for building purposes 

 that these sandstones are used, but many of their varieties, 

 as their names imply (millstone grit, grindstone grit, &c.), 

 are extensively raised for millstones, grindstones, whetstones, 

 and other kindred purposes. In a rigorous and irregular 

 climate like that of Britain, the possession of a durable 

 building-stone is of prime importance, alike on the ground 

 of comfort and economy, and luckily the coal-formation in 

 one or other of its series affords a cheap and inexhaustible 

 supply. It was the boast of Nero that he found Borne 

 built of bricks, but had left her of marble ; had her seven 

 hills contained such sandstones as those of Craigleith and 

 Binny, the boast might have taken a different direction. 

 Our own Houses of Parliament, whose decay so soon after 





