By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.8., F.G.S., Sfe. 123 



f Grey- wethers " 1 ) ; and are thinly scattered elsewhere, among the 

 heather of the downs and the grassy herbage of low grounds, or 

 peeping out on arable fields. They often lie along hedge-rows 

 where they have been hauled and left by the farmer. Many have 

 been buried out of the way of the plough. Hundreds were formerly 

 to be seen about the country in cromlechs, standing stones, and 

 ancient circles ; but of these comparatively very few remain. Not 

 unfrequently Sarsens are found in the gravel-beds of the surface. 

 Being the only durable stone in some districts, innumerable blocks 

 have been used as stepping-stones in brooks and wet lanes, — as 

 border-stones for ponds, — as corner-stones along roads and village 

 streets, — as foundation-stones in churches, bridges, houses, barns, 

 and outbuildings, — as building-stones in large and small edifices, 

 castles, churches, houses, cottages, and various walls. Enormous 

 quantities have been broken up for making and mending roads, also 

 for paving and gate-posts. The art of breaking and destroying 

 the very largest has long been known and freely used, namely, by 

 lighting narrow streaks of firewood across a block and pouring cold 

 water on the heated lines, and then bringing the sledge-hammer 

 into play on the pieces. So also a line of shallow pits chipped 

 across the surface gives a line of weakness for breakage. 



When exposed on the Downs these stones are often grey with 

 lichen ; and their own colour varies from brown to a yellowish tint 

 and grey. In shape they are usually more or less quadrangular 7 

 longer than broad, and much broader than thick. They may be 

 plain and smooth, or undulating and irregular with hollows on the 

 surface. One face is usually flatter than the other. They often 

 occur broken in two with a sharp, clean, straight fracture across 

 their length. 



II. — Size of the Sausens. 



On the Frimley Ridges, Surrey : — > 



Length. Breadth. Thickness. Cubic Measurement. Weight. 



Feet. Feet. Feet. Feet. Tons. 



12 5 2 120 8i 



1 " The Grey Wethers which lye scattered all over the downes about Marie- 

 borough, and incumber the ground for at least seven miles in diameter," &c. 

 " I have mett with this kind of stones sometimes as far as from Christian Malford 



