IV.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
9 
thirty or forty years. When chiselled smooth, it makes elegant 
fronts for houses, equal in colour and grain to the Bath stone ; 
and superior in one respect, that, when seasoned, it does not 
scale. Decent chimney-pieces are worked from it of much 
closer and finer grain than Portland ; and rooms are floored with 
it ; but it proves rather too soft for this purpose. It is a free- 
GILBERT white's HOUSE, NOW THE RESIDENCE OF PROFESSOR BELL. 
stone, cutting in all directions ; yet has something of a grain 
parallel with the horizon, and therefore should not be surhcddcd 
— that is, set edgewise, contrary to its position in the quarry. — 
but laid in the same position that it occupies tliere. On the 
ground abroad this fire-stone will not succeed for pavements, 
because, probably, some degree of saltness prevailing within it, 
