Building-Stone Commission. 389 



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sioners of Her Majesty's Woods and Forests, from a Commission 

 appointed by the Lords of the Treasury ; containing the results of 

 an inquiry into the qualities and durability of the various Building- 

 stones of this country, with a view to the selection of the best ma- 

 terial to be employed in erecting the New Houses of Parliament. 



The results of this inquiry have been arranged in Tables, which 

 represent the composition, colour, weight, size, cost, durability, &c, 

 of all the most important kinds of stone that have been used in an- 

 cient edifices in England ; the Commissioners having judiciously 

 appealed to that which is the most severe test of the durability of 

 any stone, viz. the existing condition of the decorated architecture 

 in our most ancient buildings. 



The Norman portions of the Church of Southwell, in Nottingham- 

 shire, constructed of magnesian limestone, in the twelfth century, 

 have been found to afford an example of stone which combines 

 strength and durability with applicability to ornamental carved work, 

 in a degree surpassing all other kinds of stone that have been em- 

 ployed in the most ancient fabrics of this country ; the sharpest 

 of the mouldings and carved enrichments of that church being 

 throughout in as perfect a state as when first executed. The keep 

 of Koningsburgh Castle, near Doncaster, built also of the magne- 

 sian limestone in that vicinity, offers another proof of the durabi- 

 lity of certain beds of this formation, exceeding that of any other 

 building-stone in Great Britain, which is equally fit for ornamental 

 purposes. But there are also varieties of magnesian limestone, such 

 as that of which York Cathedral is built, which are in far advanced 

 stages of decay, where they have been used for mouldings and ar- 

 chitectural decorations. 



The general result of this elaborate inquiry into the durability of 

 the different varieties of magnesian limestone is, that the stone re- 

 sists decomposition in proportion as it is more perfectly crystalline ; 

 a result, the cause of which is further illustrated by the experi- 

 ments of Professor Daniell, which show that the nearer the magnesian 

 compounds approach to equivalent proportions of carbonate of lime 

 and carbonate of magnesia, the more crystalline they are. 



No investigation has been made by these Commissioners as to 

 the capabilities of granite, porphyries, and other kinds of stone, 

 which are inapplicable to the decoration of edifices without enor- 

 mous expense. 



The Report is followed by valuable tabular lists of the most re- 

 markable ancient fabrics in England, specifying the materials of 

 which they are constructed, and their various conditions of preser- 

 vation or decay, as they are respectively built of sandstone, or of 

 oolitic, shelly, or magnesian limestone. 



To these are added tables of the chemical analysis, weight, cohe- 

 sive power, specific gravity, and power of absorbing water, of many 

 of the building stones most largely employed in England*. 



* [It may be added, as evincing the strong interest which this Report has 

 excited, that its contents have been specially illustrated, by one of the Com- 



