A Curiosity

This corner stone in the barn, which I’ve been passing for the last six years, revealed itself to me today. On the left it is cut horizontally with a mason’s point in a rough way, and whitewash still resides in the furrows. On the right it is more finely cut vertically, as often was done for door surrounds.

Why the different marks on the same piece of stone?

Back in the day, instead of having separate windows and door lintels, which were hard to cut from field , as opposed to quarried, stone the masons would often mark the window or door surround by a different, more refined, cut into the stone that was left bare rather than whitewashed.

At least, that’s my theory from other parts of the house. I’m amazed I only noticed this stone today.