Chap. 11. STONE.

477
according to the place in which it is quarried
; some quarries only yielding stone of a li^rd
flinty nature, almost unfit for building, while the stoue obtained from others is almost as
free working as Portland stone. The finest qualities are at present obtained from quarries
situated at Boughton, near Maidstone, where they have been worked for several centuries.
A section of them is given by J. Whichcord, in his pamphlet on the subject, published
in 18-16
;
wherein also ;ire given the local names of the various beds.
1666^! Flint work. This material, as used for a description of rubble work, was formerly
much employed in the counties of Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk, Sussex, and Kent, where
the chalk formation abounds, and is still used for the purpose in such localities. Flint is
the name accorded to the neai-ly pure siliceous earth, which by the action of fire becomes
opajue and white, and is harder than quartz, which it scratches. The colour is usually
grey, of various shades, but is sometimes black, brown, red, and even yellow. Flint is
fragile, with a perfect and large conchoidal fracture, and, being rarely laminated, it is
broken with equal facility in almost every direction; the fragments are sharp. In the
chalk formation it occurs in regular beds, consisting either of nodules or of fiat tabular
masses. At Brandon, in Suffolk, one of the places where flint forms an article of com-
merce, it is obtained from pits sunk in the chalk, which is within 6 feet of the surface.
The first stratum is found in the clay overlying the chalk ; when this has been removed, a
shaft is sunk 6 feet in depth ; if no tliut is there found, a tunnel is driven for three feet
horizontally, and another shaft is sunk
;
and so on alternately with tunnel and shaft till a
depth of 40 feet is reached. The flint is found in jioors about 8 feet below each other,
and is obtained by tunnels being driven, sometimes a furlong in length, under each floor,
and the flint broken down by crowbars. The small tunnels in the shaft form tables, upon
which men stand and hand up the flint to each other from below to the surf.ice; no ma-
chinery or tHckling is used.
1666(79'. Flint is split upon the workma'i's knee, by sharp blows from a hammer with an
oblate face, and squared upon a steel stake let into a wood block, with a blunt axe formed
by passing a handle through an old flat file about a foot long, the cutting edge beiug
Ij inches wide by ~ of an inch thick. (See SpECtFiCATiON).
French Building Stones.
1666M. Of these stones imported into the London market, a few only will be men-
tioned. Aubigiiy .stone is stated to be obtained from quarries situated at St. Pierre
Canivet, a short distance from Falaise, in Normandy. It is probably of the same nature
as Caen stone, namely, oolitic, but much more crystallinH in its structure, with semi-
transparent crystals, showing no appearance of ova; very fine grained; as hard or harder
than Anston stone; nearly as heavy as granite; and able to support a greater crushing
weight than Caen stoue; when worked it requires to be sawn wet with sand. There are
two workable beds, one averaging 24 inches, the other 15 inches, in thickness, (i. E.
Burnell (in his remarks on the works at Baygux Cathedral, rend at the Institute of British
Architects, 1861,
p
257) stated that be
'
was convinced the use of Aubigny stone in London
would be attended with danger. M. Flachat chose this stone because it yielded more
satistactory residts under the trials to "which he exposed the various local stones, so far
as their resistances to crushing weights were concerned
;
but his assistants expressly state,
in their published accounts of the works at Bayeux,that the Aubigny stone yielded easily
under the action of frost, if used exteriorly, as may be seen in the mediaeval buildings in
Falaise." Perhaps the only building erected with this stone in London is that part of
the old Schomberg House, Nos. 81 and 82 Pall Mall, which was rebuilt in 1851.
1666/. Caen stone is obtained from the great oolitic formation in Normandy, and has
been imported into England Irom a very early period
;
but it first appears to be named in
documents after the year 1300. There was a cessation of its use afier 1448, when Nor-
mandy was lost to this country
; and it is not until the commencement of the present
century that its employment hero was resumed. This stoue is now generally obtained
from quarries situated at Allemaiiue, a small village on the right bank of the Orne at the
gates of Caen, or from those of St. Germain de Blancherbf, commonly called La MalaU-
rerie, the commune immediately adjoining that city, on the left bank.
1666X-X:. The Caen stone of commerce is of a }ale yellow colour and of a Inoce open
grain which when freshly quarried soils the fingers like chalk, and is very friable. In
many places it appears to have lost its oolitic character
;
and in others it is harder and more
compact, being entirely formed of a species of lamellous spath, without any trace of oolites
;
the latter appearance is, however, principally to be observed in the beds which are workecl
between Caen and Falaise
; at AUemagne andLa Maladrerie the former prevails. Neither
of these two latter quarries appear to have been opened for any great length of time, the
stone used in the old city having been chiefly got on its site
;
and it is remarkable that the
portions of the public buildings which required stones of larger dimensions than could be
obtained from the upper beds of the oolitic formation immediately around the town were
executed iu the Creuilly, Rauville, or Fontaine Henri stones, never in the stone obtained
from the beds now worked exclusively for both the French and the English markets, and