though he says it is best for Teynton stone.)
(*** 'Firestone is full of salts, and has no sulphur: must be close
grained, and have no interstices. Nothing supports fire like salts;
saltstone perishes exposed to wet and frost.' Plot's Staff., p. 152.)

In Wolmer-forest I see but one sort of stone, called by the
workmen sand, or forest-stone. This is generally of the colour of
rusty iron, and might probably be worked as iron ore; is very hard
and heavy, and of a firm, compact texture, and composed of a
small roundish crystalline grit, cemented together by a brown,
terrene, ferruginous matter; will not cut without difficulty, nor
easily strike fire with steel. Being often found in broad flat pieces,
it makes good pavement for paths about houses, never becoming
slippery in frost or rain; is excellent for dry walls, and is sometimes
used in buildings. 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