They are highly impregnated with, if not wholly composed of, the
stone of the quarry.
Letter IV
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire
As in a former letter the freestone of this place has been only
mentioned incidentally, I shall here become more particular.
This stone is in great request for hearth-stones and the beds of
ovens: and in lining of lime-kilns it turns to good account; for the
workmen use sandy loam instead of mortar; the sand of which
fluxes* and runs by the intense heat, and so cases over the whole
face of the kiln with a strong vitrified, coat like glass, that it is well
preserved from injuries of weather, and endures thirty or forty
years. When chiseled smooth, it makes elegant fronts for houses,
equal in colour and grain to the Bath stone; and superior in one
respect, that, when seasoned, it does not scale. Decent chimney-
pieces are worked from it of much closer and finer grain than
Portland; and rooms are floored with it; but it proves rather too soft
for this purpose. It is a freestone, cutting in all directions; yet has
something of a grain parallel with the horizon, and therefore should
not be surbedded, but laid in the same position as it grows in the
quarry.
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