BUILDING STONES. 293 
In addition to the names just mentioned, I am indebted to Messrs. John 
Board and Company, of Dunball ; to Mr. H. J. Harding, of the firm of 
Messrs. Greaves, Bull, and Lakin, of Wilmcote, Harbury, and Stockton ; to 
Messrs. Haycraft and Company, of Lyme Regis ; and to Messrs. Charles 
Nelson and Company, of Stockton, near Rugby. 
Referring to his analysis of the Stockton lime, Mr. C. Tookey remarks that 
the lime had probably been exposed to the air since burning, as shown by the 
amount of water and carbonic acid. He says that the sulphuric acid may, in 
some limes and cements, result from the iron-pyrites in the coal used for burn- 
ing : but in this instance sulphuric acid was found to be present in two examples 
of the limestone from which the lime is produced. 
The Murlstone as well as the Lower Lias limestone, is occa- 
sionally burnt for lime for agricultural purposes. 
At Alexton, north-west of Rockingham, the basement-limestones 
of the Upper Lias are dug and sent to Tugby, where they are 
burnt, and they make an hydraulic lime said to be equal to that 
of Barrow-on-Soar.* 
Building Stones. 
The Lias nowhere yields any building-stones that have been 
extensively used far from the localities where such material can 
be quarried. In the stone-districts the houses are usually con- 
structed of the Lias limestones, and the older cottages have 
thatched roofs ; but over the greater part of the Lias area, bricks 
are the chief building-materials, and the towns like Gloucester, 
Evesham, Stratford-on-Avon, Northampton, Grantham and 
Lincoln, are constructed for the most part of brick, with red-tiled 
or slated roofs. 
The Lower Lias limestones are locally employed for building- 
purposes, but as a rule the stone is not very durable, and much of 
it shivers with the frost. " When taken from the sea-side, as 
near Lyme Regis, where it has become impregnated with saline 
water, it is notoriously bad."t The flues of houses built of Lias 
limestone are usually constructed of brick. 
The most durable stone in the Lower Lias is that of Sutton, 
near Bridgend in Glamorganshire. This is a pale granular and 
crystalline limestone, altogether different in texture from the 
ordinary beds of the Lower Lias. It furnishes a freestone that is 
used for building, while the top beds are employed for walling. 
It was formerly used in the construction of some of the old 
Welsh castles, in Neath Abbey, &c. 
Beds somewhat similar to the Sutton Stone are quarried on the 
north side of Shepton Mallet. Again at Downside, near 
Wrington, there is a stone (referred to as Brockley Down Lime- 
stone) which presents some resemblances to the Doulting stone 
(Inferior Oolite), but by no means possesses so firm a texture. 
Analysis shows 4' 8 per cent, of silica, J 
* Judd, Geol. Rutland, p. 79. 
f De la Beche, Report, p. 488. 
J See Analysis by T. Ransome and B. Cooper, Mem. Geol, Surrey, vol. ii. Part II. 
p. 687. 
