SUSSEX 3IARBLE. 
185 
The marble is frequently found in blocks or 
slabs, sufficiently large for sideboards, columns, or 
chimney-pieces, and but few of the ancient resi- 
dences of the Sussex gentry are without them. 
There is historical proof of its having been known 
to the Homans, “ and in tlie early Norman cen- 
turies it was much sought after, and applied, as tlie 
Purbeck marble was, when cut into small insulated 
shafts of pillars, which were placed in the trifona^ 
or upper arcades, of cathedral churches, as at Can- 
terbury and Chichester. At the first-mentioned, 
the archiepisco})al chair is composed of it. Another 
more general use was for the slabs of sepulchral 
monuments, into which portraits and inscriptions 
of brass were inserted. In the chancel at Trotton, 
there is a single stone, the superficial measure of 
which is nine feet six inches, by four feet six 
inches ; and another, in the pavement of the ca- 
thedral of Chichester, measures more than seven 
feet by three and a half.” York Cathedral, YTst- 
minster Abbey, Temple Church, Salisbury Cathe- 
dral, and most of the principal Gothic edifices in 
the kingdom, contain pillars or slabs of this mar- 
ble. It is singular that, in Woodward’s time, an 
o])inion prevailed, that these pillars, &c. were arti- 
ficial, and formed of a cement cast in moulds ; but, 
as that author remarks, “ anv one who shall 
confer the grain of the marble of those pillars, the 
spar, and the shells in it, with those of this marble 
got in Sussex, will soon discern how little ground 
there is for that opinion, and yet it has prevailed 
very generally. I met with several instances of it 
as I travelled through England, and liad frequent 
opportunities of showing those who asserted these 
