York stone is the best known of the sandstones. It is composed of grains of silica or Band cemented together with silica, carbonates of lime and maguesia, alumina, and oxide of iron. York stone is obtained chiefly from the Coal Measures and from the Millstone Grit series, though some of it is got from the New Red Sandstone formation. York stone is obtained from a large number of quarries in Yorkshire and in the surrounding counties. The most noted quarry is the Bramley Fall, which, however, was worked out long ago; but a good deal of stone of a similar character is found to the north of Leeds, and is sold under the name of Bramley Fall. Other well-known quarries are Robin Hood, Park Spring, Potter Newton, and Howley Park. York stone is of a light yellowish or ferruginous brown colour, though some varieties show a bluish tinge. Bath stone is an oolitic limestone, consisting of grains of carbonate of lime cemented together with the same substance or by some mixture of lime with silica or alumina. Bath stone is very soft when first quarried, but hardens cm exposure to the air. It is necessary that this stone should, in a building, be placed on or parallel to its natural bed.

The best known Bath stone quarries are Box Ground. Combe Down, Westwood Down, Corsham Down, Corsham Ridge, and Stoke Ground. Stone from different quarries, and from different beds in the same quarry, varies much in quality; some kinds of Bath stone weather very badly, and can only be used for internal work, whilst other kinds are fit for external work in ordinary atmospheres. Craigleith stone is a sandstone composed of quartz grains interspersed with small grains of mica, and united by a siliceous cement. Craigleith stone contains 98 per cent, of silica, and only about 1 per cent, of carbonate of lime. The stone is found near Edinburgh; it is used extensively in that city, and is also exported. It is perhaps the most durable sandstone in the United Kingdom. As regards durability when employed for facing the elevation of a building the stones may be placed in the following order. (1) Craigleith; (2) York stone; (3) Bath stone. The atmosphere of all large towns contains a sensible proportion of acids (such as sulphuric acid, nitric acid, etc.) derived chiefly from smoke and from the exhalations of chemical works.

These acids act destructively upon carbonate of lime, and the stone containing the largest proportion of lime, or in which the lime is more readily acted upon, disintegrates the most rapidly. Hence a sandstone is to be preferred for use in au acid-laden atmosphere. Craigleith, being the less porous of the two sandstones, resists the action of frost better than York stone.