In many parts of that waste it lies scattered on
the surface of the ground; but is dug on Weaver's-down, a vast hill
on the eastern verge of that forest, where the pits are shallow, and
the stratum thin. This stone is imperishable.
From a notion of rendering their work the more elegant, and giving
it a finish, masons chip this stone into small fragments about the
size of the head of a large nail; and then stick the pieces into the
wet mortar along the joints of their freestone walls: this
embellishment carries an odd appearance, and has occasioned
strangers sometimes to ask us pleasantly, 'whether we fastened our
walls together with tenpenny nails.'
Letter V
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire
Among the singularities of this place the two rocky hollow lanes,
the one to Alton, and the other to the forest, deserve our attention.
These roads, running through the malm lands, are, by the traffic of
ages, and the fretting of water, worn down through the first stratum
of our freestone,
and partly through the second; so that they look more like water-
courses than roads; and are bedded with naked rag for furlongs
together.
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