Nearly five years ago the writer was spending an evening in company with a member of the architectural profession and a mutual friend, who was engaged on the staff of a building trades journal, the time being passed in what is ordinarily known as "talking shop." The journalist had been taken to task for certain misstatements respecting marble and its working that had appeared in recent issues of his periodical, and for which he admitted responsibility, and the conversation ranged for some time on the use and abuse of marble for various purposes, and the difficulties experienced in obtaining information respecting the suitability of particular marbles for projected uses.
It was suggested that there was room for a handbook on marble, which, while not being abstruse, should yet be descriptive of the various types of marble and the processes the material went through from quarry to completed work; it should also contain a list of the principal marbles in ordinary use in the country, with a descriptive note of each variety, and, where possible, an accessible instance of its employment. This was the origin of the series of articles contributed to the pages of "The Quarry" during 1907-8, which, after considerable revision and additions, form the basis of the work now presented.
