Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/25

Rh Early English style; though I cannot speak as to the ornamental work of the interior of that part, which I imagine is likely to be of Caen stone. On the other hand in the church of St. Cross I could not perceive a single piece of the stone: but the Norman portion of Winchester Cathedral is entirely, so far as my observation could reach, composed of it; and from a rather cursory examination I apprehend, that a close inspection would probably confirm very remarkably the idea of Professor Willis respecting the adaptation of certain Norman piers in the nave to later alterations effected in that compartment of the edifice. (See his Archit. Hist. of Winchester Cathedral, 54, 68 to 74.) In the same city the remaining ruins of Wolvesey Castle consist almost wholly, if not wholly, of wrought stone from some former building (the old Saxon cathedral? See Willis as above, 17) the material being of the same kind as just mentioned in the cathedral; though it is not intended to affirm absolutely that no specimens of another description can be found.

The stone in question has the appearance of being formed by the compression of comminuted fragments of innumerable shells. In the method of formation, though not in the substances of which it is composed (writing without any knowledge of geology), it bears a considerable resemblance to Bath stone; the latter, to which I would compare it, consisting of indurated grit or coarse sand, with the occasional intermixture of small pebbles either rounded or angular. When my attention was first attracted, I was much struck by the likeness of the Bath stone to that, which, some time previous, I had been studying, although, on closer examination, the difference was immediately discovered. The quality of the stone above noticed seems to vary, but it often becomes extremely hard, though it is liable to wear away in some measure from exposure to the atmosphere, and, as must be anticipated, it is unfit for delicate carving, or for any such work after under-cutting was practised. The result of my researches tends towards the conclusion, that this shelly stone ceased to be extensively employed, that is, in fresh supplies, when the improvement of architectural skill introduced a more complicated and more elaborate style of ornamentation, it being then superseded by the Caen stone, and other sorts of a finer and closer grain. No opportunity has hitherto occurred of ascertaining, by personal examination, or in reply to inquiries, the quarries, from which our stone was obtained, or of identifying it in situ; but a high geological authority, the present-learned Professor of Geology at