Note the foundation damage caused by the chimney pulling away from the home. 
The big cracks in the photos at the bottom of the chimney are in the sparge coat. I would speculate that the seller was trying to hide the fact that the either the chimney is falling away from the home or the entire home has settled. The fact that the sparge coat has cracked that bad makes me say that the movement is still going on. Possibly no foundation under that chimney to support it.
This foundation consists of stacked stone. The stone is actually cracked.
[quote=Jon Randolph]
The big cracks in the photos at the bottom of the chimney are in the sparge coat. quote]
We call it parge coat up north. Don’t know which one is right - maybe both.
We call it parge coating in the South too. There is a word Sparge but I think it applies to spraying something with water or introducing air or gas into a liquid. May just be a local term or typo.