172 president's address. 



The marble font and step in the Church are formed out of the 

 smaller and larger cockle "posts" of the limestone. The 

 sundial, dated 1727, bears the motto " Ut hora sic vita." 

 Several gravecovers are reared against the porch wall of the 

 Church, and one is let into the wall. One bears a beautiful 

 floriated cross of the thirteenth century. A coffin standing in 

 the same place has been constructed out of a block of the 

 large cockle " post." In the garden of the Rectory is an altar 

 found in 1747 on Bolihope Common, about four miles south 

 of Stanhope. 



Under the guidance of Mr. Pattison, the courteous and 

 well informed manager of the Ashes Quarry, we ascended the 

 hill and examined the blue face of the Great Limestone. 

 This stratum, which is seventy-two feet thick, is almost 

 identical with the bed at the well known Frosterley quarries, 

 from which marble for ornamental purposes has been largely 

 quarried. The top covering is of a depth of about forty feet, 

 and the quarrying of the rock was suspended in consequence 

 of the great expense attendant upon the removal of this 

 covering. A few months ago the quarry was purchased by 

 the Consett Iron Company, and by means of improved 

 appliances it is expected the industry will again become 

 remunerative. Portions of the uncovered top of the limestone 

 bed distinctively showed the scratchings and scorings of 

 glacial action, but these unfortunately at the time of our visit 

 had been quarried away. There are sixty solid feet of lime- 

 stone rock, plate and shale to a depth of two feet, then twelve 

 more feet of limestone. The stratum is composed of a series 

 of deposits or leaves called by the quarrymen " posts." Each 

 " post " has its name generally derived from some character- 

 istic feature. The top are called the " Fine posts," that below 

 " Toby Giles," the next, which is hard and difficult to break, 

 is called "Crabby." Below this lies the "Mucky post," 

 containing a little loam. We then come to a very beautiful 

 part of the rock known as the " Pea post," so called from its 

 containing numerous encrinites, which in a cross section are 

 mostly the size of peas. Below this is a layer of fine stone, 



