ABSTRACT
The Pleasures of Limestone are pure calcium carbonate deposited by the dripping of water. The Luray cavern in Virginia contains a fluted column of pure white marble of the finest grain, thirty feet high. There are natural corridors, galleries, amphitheatres of immense magnitude. One room has a dome supported by columns and walls of green and orange crystalline stone.1 It is difficult to determine by sight the dimensions of cavernous rooms; for, since there are no particles floating in the air to scatter the rays of light, one is certain to exaggerate the magnitude of subterranean spaces. They loom, they suggest a Mohammedan or Gothic rather than a classical style. Still, one would imagine that when men came up to live in the sun, and when finally they realized the measure in outlook that one associates with the Mediterranean lands and the Mediterranean light, one would imagine that what remembrance remained of the looming cavern would be exorcized, translated into a broad and open architecture of precision; masonry placed on high in the sun, a single and clear organization of Nature's limestone bizarrerie. We shall find the Hellenic temple to be thus. Seen in the light, the detailed structure of limestone often displays classical members. For instance, at one point at least where horizontal strata are exposed on the cliffs at Lavenock, Glamorgan, one sees the delicate lines as architrave moulding and a projecting slab above as cornice.2
