328 Beports and Proceedings, 



from the Inferior Oolite, and. ought to be classed as Upper Lias beds, 

 to which they paleeontologically belong. 



Mr. Symonds, of Pendock, requested the attention of the geo- 

 logists of the Cotteswold Club to a matter which he considered of 

 importance to the public in general. He alluded to the miserable 

 building materials which, under the very indefinite cognomen of 

 " Bath stone," are used by architects and builders in so many houses 

 and churches erected far away from the Cotteswold Hills, even 

 among the hills and vales of Wales. Much of this so-called " Bath 

 stone," when used for external purposes, is utter rubbish, and 

 weathers and shivers with the first winter's frost. He mentioned 

 examples of the window sills and plinths of several churches and 

 houses which had fallen under his observation, the weathering of the 

 building stone of Eastnor obelisk, of various railway bridges, of ex- 

 terior oi'namental work at many churches, and declared that he 

 strongly suspected the capability of the stone of which Sir Cornewall 

 Lewis's monument is erected, at New Radnor, to resist the effect 

 even of a few years' frost. What, then, was Bath stone ? It ap- 

 peared to him that it was a most indefinite, misleading, and unsatis- 

 factory term, and was applied alike to the truly good building stones 

 of certain beds in the Oolitic deposits, and the wretched stuff sent 

 down by builders and architects to their misled and ill-fated em- 

 ployers in the vales. A friend, who was building an expensive 

 house in Hampshire, was to have the window facings, &c., of " Bath 

 stone," from the Box Tunnel. Would any Cotteswold geologist 

 inform him whether this Box Tunnel " Bath stone " would stand 

 the weather, or shiver in two winters into atoms? Would the 

 Cotteswold Club unite in giving the public information on the 

 proper localities where really good weather stone might be obtained, 

 and endeavour to stir up architects, builders, and engineers, to 

 educate themselves in the elements of lithology and geology, and 

 thus to make themselves acquainted with the beds of rock proper to 

 be used for external purposes, and save their employers from much 

 future annoyance and expense ? 



Mr. Symonds's speech caused considerable discussion, and the 

 subject was taken up and replied to by Dr. Wright, Mr. Witchell, 

 and Mr. Stanton. 



Dr. Wright said that it was an almost painful question, and still 

 more painful to see money thrown away in consequence of the use 

 of improper materials. The subject was too large and too intricate 

 for the Cotteswold Club to take up, and proper men, paid for their 

 services, should be appointed to select beds that would resist the 

 action of the weather, who understood what they were about, and 

 were not utterly ignorant of the first principles of lithology and 

 mineralogy. No gentleman building a house should trust an archi- 

 tect or a builder in the selection of stone for external purposes, as 

 architects and builders were at present educated. It was most 

 desirable that the question be thoroughly ventilated and investigated. 

 In this progressive and scientific age it would become necessary that 

 architects, engineers, and builders shoidd make such subjects a part 



