STONES.
I WILL begin with freestone (lapis arenarius), as the best kind of
stone that this country doth afford.
The quarre at Haselbury [near Box] was most eminent for freestone in
the western parts, before the discovery of the Portland quarrie, which
was but about anno 1600. The church of Portland, which stands by the
sea side upon the quarrie, (which lies not very deep, sc. ten foot),
is of Cane stone, from Normandie. Malmesbury Abbey and the other
Wiltshire religious houses are of Haselbury stone. The old tradition
is that St. Adelm, Abbot of Malmesbury, riding over the ground at
Haselbury, did throw down his glove, and bad them dig there, and they
should find great treasure, meaning the quarre.
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AT Chilmarke is a very great quarrie of freestone, whereof the
religious houses of the south part of Wiltshire and Dorset were built.
[The walls, buttresses, and other substantial parts of Salisbury
Cathedral are constructed of the Chilmarke stone. - J. B.]
At Teffont Ewyas is a quarrie of very good white freestone, not long
since discovered.
At Compton Basset is a quarrie of soft white stone betwixt chalke and
freestone: it endures fire admirably well, and would be good for
reverbatory furnaces: it is much used for ovens and hearth-stones: it
is as white as chalke. At my Lord Stowell's house at Aubury is a
chimney piece carved of it in figures; but it doth not endure the
weather, and therefore it ought not to be exposed to sun and raine.
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