476 LOWER OOLITIC ROCKS OP ENGLAND! 
district, to which, the churches and halls, as those of Montacute and 
Brympton, and other buildings, bear witness, while its tones of colour 
render it very pleasing to the eye. Recently it has been used in the 
construction of the building for the New Traveller's Club in Piccadilly 
and in Daly's Theatre, Cranbourn Street. 
The deep quarries on Ham Hill, as Mr. C. Trask has stated, have only 
been opened in the present century : that in which the section (p. 72) 
was taken, being made about 35 years ago. The Grey Beds are said to 
yield the best weather-stone. Blocks of stone, 4 or 5 tons in weight, and 
from 2 ft. 6 in. to 6 feet thick, are raised for building-purposes. The 
stone is occasionally, used for paving, but it is too soft to be well adapted 
for the purpose. 
Shelly beds of somewhat similar character to the Ham Hill Stone, have 
been quarried at North Perrot, and also near Yeovil Junction, where the 
stone (which occurs only in thin bands) has been used for building 
bridges, &c., on the London and South-Western Railway. 
The Dculting Stone, quarried at Doulting near Shepton Mallet, is a pale- 
brown, somewhat sparry, limestone, of apparently loose texture ; but the 
stone hardens and becomes paler in tint, and very durable on exposure. 
Some local varieties are known as the Chelynch and Brambleditch Stones, 
from the quarries whence the stone is extracted. The particular beds 
exposed in one of the Doulting quarries have been already noted (p. 88). 
The stone is not so readily carved as Bath Stone, but it is more durable. 
It was used in old times in the construction of Wells Cathedral and 
Glastonbury Abbey. 
The Dundry Stone, quarried and mined on Dundry Hill, south of Bristol, 
is a hard pale brown limestone of imperfectly oolitic character. (See 
p. 99.) It .has been largely used in Bristol ; parts of the Cathedral, the 
church of St. Mary Bedclifl'e, and other edifices having been constructed 
of the stone. It has also been used in Llandaft' Cathedral. Analysis of 
the rock shows 96' 14 per cent, of carbonate of lime, and 1*35 of silica.* 
(See p. 472.) One cubic foot of the stone weighs about 1 J cwt. 
The Freestones of the Inferior Oolite are quarried at numerous places 
along the Cotteswold Hills, both on the western and eastern sides. In 
some localities as at Dowdeswell, Nailsworth, and at Walls Quarry, 
Brimacombe, there have been underground workings. 
The beds known as the Lower Freestone are those principally worked, 
and there are quarries at Uloy Bury, Selsley Hill, Ball's Green near 
Nailsworth, Stroud, Quar Hill by the Horsepools, Painswick Hill.f Hares- 
field, Birdlip, Lecklmu \pton, Brookhampton, Temple Guiting, Stanway, 
Broadway, Bourtou-on-the-Hill, Seizincote, Longborough near Bourton- 
on-the-Water, &c. The Upper Freestones are quarried at Nailsworth. 
Other beds belonging to the Pea Grit Series have been worked near 
Haresfield, Crickley, and Cleeve. 
From the fact that escarpments usually face the west, arises the common 
opinion that the best stone occiirs on the west side of the hills ; and this 
is a fact so far as regards the Cheltenham freestone (of the quarries before 
mentioned), and of the Hornton Stone which occurs in the Middle Lias of 
Edge Hill. 
The Bourton Stone (of Bourton-on-the-Hill) is not considered so good as 
the Cheltenham or Painswick Stones. It comprises an upper bed of oolite, 
known as the White Rock, which is used for rough inside-walling, and is 
burnt for lime. The best freestone is the Yellow Bed, an oolite, of which 
blocks about 40 cubic fret in size are sometimes obtained, but those of 
10 or 12 feet are the usual size. 16 cubic feet go to the ton. The Red Bed, 
a ferruginous and cellular oolitic stone, is used for foundations, but it is 
a hard rock that " breaks all tools." (See p. 143.) 
* Mem. Geol. Survey, vol. ii., part 2, p. 688 ; see also Voelcker, Journ. Bath and 
W. of Eng. Soc., ser. 2, vol. vi. p. 223 ; and Stoddart, Proc. Bristol Nat. Sac., ser. 2, 
vol. ii- p. 28. 
f For analysis of Painswick Stone, see Mem. Geol. Surv., vol. il, Part 2, p. 693. 
