'Large bones, well knit and strongly-compacted muscles, confirmed in their united energies by the hardest labour, in a pure atmosphere, give them a power so Herculean, that three cwts. is lifted by men of ordinary strength with ease,' describes the quarrymen.
 
'In this way blocks of every imaginable size and form are procured and when they have been wedged out a council is held by the men and it is discussed whether this one would make a pier stone for a bridge another a shaft for a column a third a baluster for a parapet and so on,' describes the quarrying.
 
A description of the Isle of Portland, its quarries, people and economy from the Penny Magazine 1838