of 0 XFO HI%E. 6-1 
rooms within (as I faw at Svpcrford^ as to point walls without : 
but at Stunsfield there was no body knew of itsufe. 
49. Other earths there are that I find in this County,for whofe 
names^ as well as natures^ I am quite at a lofs ; whereof there is 
one in Sk Thomas Fennyjf oris Fzvk^ which for the ftrangenefs of 
its qualities deferves the firll place. Of colour it is extreamly 
white, of little taft, and Icfs fmell ; lying in veins in a yellowiOi 
clay, 'A medulla 2bout the bignefs of ones wrift; taken out 
with a knife, it falls into a fine powder, fomwhat gritty, but of 
fo very great a weight, that its double at leaft to any other earth 
of its bulk ; put in the fcale againfi: white Marble dufl^ it equalled 
its weight, and exceeded that of Alabajier by almoft a fourth part : 
fetin fandin a glafs retort, and driven with a quick and ftrong 
fire, it fublimed to the fides of the glafs a litde, but flill preferved 
its colourand vreight, till put between two Crucibles^ one invert- 
ed upon the other ; «'cU luted, and ftrongly forced in a wind- 
furnace for about two hours,it loft above the moiety of its weight: 
for as I well remember, of three ounces put in, there came not out 
full one zndz half, and yet nothing fublimed in the top of the 
Crucible : the colour ftill remained as white as ever, and the bulk 
(as near as I could guefs) the fame, but now of a ftrong fait and 
urinous taft ; which after folution, filtration, and evaporation, 
came at laft, to what people as little underftood, as what became 
of its ponderous ingredient. 
50. Wetryed it alfo at Cornwell^ in Sir Thomas Pennyfton's 
Laboratory^ becaufe of its weight with divcYSj^uxingfalts^ in hopes 
of fome kind of metalline fubftance, but all, as before, to little 
purpofe. So that I cannot tell what to divine it (liould be, ex- 
cept the Gur of the i^i/^////?^ congealed, which they defcribc in 
their Books to be much fuch a thing, which for want of more 
time to fpcnd in itsfervice, I leave to the difcovery of future 
ages. 
51. In the Chalk-pits almoft evfery where in the South-eaft 
parts of Oxford-fiirey they finde a fort of iron-colour*d terra la- 
fidofa^ in the very body of the chalky which 1 think they call 
Iron-moulds^ and particularly at a place between Brightvpell and 
Berrickt of an oval figure: how they came to be of that ftiape. 
Or at all grow, in a fubftance of fo different a nature as chalky 1 
confefs to be a problem beyond my knowledge, as well as the 
I 2 life 
