294 



On the Materials of Roman Querns. 



puzzled the natives not a little, for which reason they " took no 

 account on 'em." 



7. The Sandstones of the Old-red, are, like those of the New- 

 red, simply composed of fine grains of Sand cemented together. 

 They are not hard enough for long endurance, and therefore the 

 paucity of querns from the Old and New- red systems, though these 

 strata are so largely developed, is readily accounted for. 



8. The harder Silicious Stones from the older rocks have often 

 been used for querns. The Society's collection contains one of these 

 of a very interesting form. 



These will be sufficient to illustrate the facts with which I started, 

 and to show how far many of these stones must have spread over 

 England : but it is also true of the Roman period as it is of the 

 present day, that foreign rocks were called upon to furnish this 

 country both with hone-stones and querns. Of the latter, all the 

 important Romans stations that I have examined furnish numerous 

 examples. I have at Cirencester no fewer than five specimens 

 of querns composed of a hard dark-coloured Volcanic grit, and I 

 saw many of the same kind at Wroxeter. These are from 

 Andernach on the Rhine. Their general size is about 15 inches, 

 they are usually made with great precision, and are very finely 

 scored. There is no doubt that the hardness of the stone, together 

 with the toughness of its texture, made this volcanic grit very 

 superior for querns, and we may hence infer that though commu- 

 nication both by sea and land was more difficult than at present, 

 yet on the whole it paid to import these querns, for in no 

 other way can we account for their very general spread over our 

 country. 



These hasty remarks have been penned as the result of an 

 examination of the materials of querns. Were we however to 

 extend our remarks to other stone relics, as mortaria, altars, 

 marbles, &c, we should find that Geology is no mean assistant to 

 Archaeology, and in fact, that they are more nearly united than 

 would at first sight appear. 



