MARBLE. 481 
Marble. 
Some of the Oolitic limestones have been polished for economic 
purposes ; but their use has been very local. 
The Campden Stone, a pisolitic limestone that occurs in the Inferior 
Oolite near Chipping Campden, has been used for the reredos of Brailes- 
Church, and has been occasionally polished for mantelpieces. 
In the Lincolnshire Limestone at Stamford, there are layers of buff 
and blue-hearted limestone, which under the names of Stamford Marble 
and Stamford Stone were formerly used for chimney-pieces, &c. (see 
p. 205). The Weldon Rag, a shell-limestone belonging to the same 
formation, is also polished for ornamental purposes (see p. 192). 
Some of the Ammonites (A. ParJcinsoni, A. concavus, &c.) and Nautili 
(Nautilus clausus, N. polygoncdis, &c.) from the Inferior Oolite of Bridport 
and Bradford Abbas are cut and polished for sale. 
The shelly and oolitic limestones of the Forest Marble were in old times 
polished for chimney-pieces, &c. in the Forest of Wychwood, but the 
stone is now rarely if ever used for the purpose in the district ; and I 
failed to obtain any polished specimen. 
The stone contains " galls " or irregular cavities filled with ochreous or 
clayey material, and on this account it is an uncertain rock : moreover 
the shelly fragments are apt to break away. The colour of the rock is 
often of a dull yellowish-grey and by no means of an ornamental 
character. Stone obtained at Bothenhampton, and also at Long Burton 
near Sherborne, in Dorset, is occasionally polished for local use : there 
are specimens in the Museum at Jermyn Street. The name Yeovil Marble 
was employed in 1818 by Buckland for the local beds of Forest Marble, 
but the term has been misapplied to the Liassic " Ammonite Marble," 
found at Marston Magna in the same neighbourhood. The Forest 
Marble at Bowden has in the early part of the present century been 
polished, under the name of Bowden Marble. 
A shelly limestone, " Crackment Marble," was employed in Sherborne 
Abbey, and an example is preserved in the Museum of Practical Geology : 
this probably belongs to the Forest Marble. 
Shelly limestone, obtained at Buckingham, has been used for orna- 
mental purposes under the name of Buckingham Marble.* (See p. 379.) 
Prof. Judd remarks that beds of hard blue shelly limestone, in the 
Great Oolite Series, were formerly quarried for ornamental purposes, and 
were known as " Alwalton (pron. Allerton) Marble." This material was 
employed in the Early English portions of Peterborough Cathedral, as a 
substitute for the celebrated Purbeck Marble, in the small clustered 
columns which characterize that style. f (See p. 415.) 
The Stan-wick Eagstone, a bluish-grey shelly limestone, resembling 
Forest Marble, that was quarried near Higham Ferrers, was formerly 
polished for ornamental purposes. This bed is probably on a similar 
horizon in the Great Oolite as a stone (mentioned by Sharp) at Oundle, 
and which is there worked into lintels, and sills of windows, &c.J (See 
p. 411.) 
Road Metal. 
Various limestones and sandstones in the Oolitic Series have 
been employed for road-metal, but their use is becoming more and 
more restricted to the by-roads, owing to the introduction by rail 
of better materials. As a rule the shattered stone, rubble, and 
waste of the quarries are employed for the purpose. 
* Buckland, Aim. Phil., ser. 2, vol. i., 1821, p. 464. 
f Geol. Rutland, p. 202 ; see also Sharp, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxix, 
p. 278, and Porter, Geol. Peterborough, p. 96. 
"I Conybeare and Phillips, Geol. Eng. and Wales, p. 217 ; and Sharp, oo. cit. f 
p. 281. 
B 75928. H H 
