192 



some of the pebbles are broken out, having been rather 

 moulded than cemented, and almost loose when found. 

 This specimen, I believe, is from Hertfordshire, where some 

 people assert that they grow ! This kind of stone was 

 greatly sought after about a century ago, to be cut into 

 trinkets, snuff-boxes, coat-buttons, &c. 



The lower specimen came from South-end, Essex, and 

 was given me by Lady Wilson. The opposite shore, 

 at Sheppy Island, Kent, has many varieties of it, probably 

 washed out of the curious marie clifts of that place. This 

 specimen is somewhat too sandy, and not close-grained 

 enough to bear a polish. They are sometimes found very 

 large, and I have seen fragments of them that must have 

 been several feet in diameter, which had been formerly 

 worked into querns to grind corn. 



Probably the name was given by English lapidaries ; and, 

 as Mr. Kirwan observes, they meant, by the appellation of 

 Pudding Stones, to express flint pebbles of any colour ce- 

 mented with a substance of the same or a similar hardness, 

 so as to make an equally compact stone for polishing. 



