Quarries with vs are pits or mines, out of which we dig our stone to
build withall, & of these as we haue great plentie in England, so are
they of diuerse sorts, and those verie profitable for sundrie
necessarie vses. In times past the vse of stone was in maner dedicated
to the building of churches, religious houses, princely palaces,
bishops manours, and holds onlie: but now that scrupulous obseruation
is altogither infringed, and building with stone so commonlie taken
vp, that amongst noble men & gentlemen, the timber frames are supposed
to be not much better than paper worke, of little continuance, and
least continuance of all. It farre passeth my cunning to set downe how
manie sorts of stone for building are to be found in England, but much
further to call each of them by their proper names. Howbeit, such is
the curiositie of our countrimen, that notwithstanding almightie God
hath so blessed our realme in most plentifull maner, with such and so
manie quarries apt and meet for piles of longest continuance, yet we
as lothsome of this abundance, or not liking of the plentie, doo
commonlie leaue these naturall gifts to mould and cinder in the
ground, and take vp an artificiall bricke, in burning whereof a great
part of the wood of this land is dailie consumed and spent, to the no
small decaie of that commoditie, and hinderance of the poore that
perish oft for cold.
Our elders haue from time to time, following our naturall vice in
misliking of our owne commodities at home, and desiring those of other
countries abroad, most estéemed the cane stone that is brought hither
out of Normandie: and manie euen in these our daies following the same
veine, doo couet in their works almost to vse none other. Howbeit
experience on the one side, and our skilfull masons on the other
(whose iudgement is nothing inferiour to those of other countries) doo
affirme, that in the north and south parts of England, and certeine
other places, there are some quarries, which for hardnesse and beautie
are equall to the outlandish greet. This maie also be confirmed by the
kings chappell at Cambridge, the greatest part of the square stone
wherof was brought thither out of the north. Some commend the veine of
white frée stone, slate, and méere stone, which is betwéene Pentowen,
and the blacke head in Cornewall, for verie fine stuffe. Other doo
speake much of the quarries at Hamden, nine miles from Milberie, and
pauing stone of Burbecke. For toph stone, not a few allow of the
quarrie that is at Dreslie, diuerse mislike not of the veines of hard
stone that are at Oxford, and Burford. One praiseth the free stone at
Manchester, & Prestburie in Glocestershire; another the quarries of
the like in Richmont. The third liketh well of the hard stone in Clee
hill in Shropshire; the fourth of that of Thorowbridge, Welden, and
Terrinton. Whereby it appeareth that we haue quarries inow, and good
inough in England, sufficient for vs to build withall, if the péeuish
contempt of our owne commodities, and delectations to inrich other
countries, did not catch such foolish hold vpon vs. It is also
verified (as anie other waie) that all nations haue rather néed of
England, than England of anie other. And this I thinke may suffice for
the substance of our works. Now if you haue regard to their ornature,
how manie mines of sundrie kinds of course & fine marble are there to
be had in England? But chieflie one in Staffordshire, an other neere
to the Peke, the third at Vauldrie, the fourth at Snothill (longing to
the lord Chaindois) the fift at Eglestone, which is of blacke marble,
spotted with graie or white spots, the sixt not farre from Durham. Of
white marble also we haue store, and so faire as the Marpesian of
Paris Ile. But what meane I to go about to recite all, or the most
excellent? sith these which I haue named alredie are not altogether of
the best, nor scarselie of anie value in comparison of those, whose
places of growth are vtterlie vnknowne vnto me, and whereof the blacke
marble spotted with greene is none of the vilest sort, as maie appeare
by parcell of the pauement of the lower part of the quire of Paules in
London, and also in Westminster, where some péeces thereof are yet to
be séene and marked, if anie will looke for them. If marble will not
serue, then haue we the finest alabaster that maie elsewhere bée had,
as about saint Dauids of Wales; also neere to Beau manour, which is
about foure or fiue miles from Leicester, & taken to be the best,
although there are diuerse other quarries hereof beyond the Trent, as
in Yorkeshire, &c: and fullie so good as that, whose names at this
time are out of my remembrance. What should I talke of the plaister of
Axholme (for of that which they dig out of the earth in sundrie places
of Lincolne and Darbishires, wherewith they blanch their houses in
stead of lime, I speake not) certes it is a fine kind of alabaster.
But sith it is sold commonlie but after twelue pence the load, we
iudge it to be but vile and course. For my part I cannot skill of
stone, yet in my opinion it is not without great vse for plaister of
paris, and such is the mine of it, that the stones thereof lie in
flakes one vpon an other like plankes or tables, and vnder the same is
an excéeding hard stone verie profitable for building, as hath often
times béene prooued. This is also to be marked further of our plaister
white and graie, that not contented with the same, as God by the
quarrie dooth send and yéeld it foorth, we haue now deuised to cast it
in moulds for windowes and pillers of what forme and fashion we list,
euen as alabaster it selfe: and with such stuffe sundrie houses in
Yorkshire are furnished of late. But of what continuance this deuise
is like to proue, the time to come shall easilie bewraie. In the meane
time sir Rafe Burcher knight hath put the deuise in practise, and
affirmeth that six men in six moneths shall trauell in that trade to
sée greater profit to the owner, than twelue men in six yeares could
before this tricke was inuented.
If neither alabaster nor marble doeth suffice, we haue the touchstone,
called in Latine _Lydius lapis_, shining as glasse, either to match in
sockets with our pillers of alabaster, or contrariwise: or if it
please the workeman to ioine pillers of alabaster or touch with
sockets of brasse, pewter, or copper, we want not also these mettals.
So that I think no nation can haue more excellent & greater diuersitie
of stuffe for building, than we maie haue in England, if our selues
could so like of it. But such alas is our nature, that not our own but
other mens do most of all delite vs; & for desire of noueltie, we oft
exchange our finest cloth, corne, tin, and woolles, for halfe penie
cockhorsses for children, dogs of wax or of chéese, two pennie tabers,
leaden swords, painted feathers, gewgaws for fooles, dogtricks for
disards, hawkeswhoods, and such like trumperie, whereby we reape iust
mockage and reproch in other countries. I might remember here our pits
for milstones, that are to be had in diuerse places of our countrie,
as in Angleseie, Kent, also at Queene hope of blew gréet, of no lesse
value than the Colaine, yea than the French stones: our grindstones
for hardware men. Our whetstones are no lesse laudable than those of
Creta & Lacedemonia, albeit we vse no oile with them, as they did in
those parties, but onelie water, as the Italians and Naxians doo with
theirs: whereas they that grow in Cilicia must haue both oile and
water laid vpon them, or else they make no edge. These also are
diuided either into the hard greet, as the common that shoemakers vse,
or the soft gréet called hones, to be had among the barbars, and those
either blacke or white, and the rub or brickle stone which husbandmen
doo occupie in the whetting of their sithes.
In like maner slate of sundrie colours is euerie where in maner to be
had, as is the flint and chalke, the shalder and the peble. Howbeit
for all this wée must fetch them still from farre, as did the Hull men
their stones out of Iseland, wherewith they paued their towne for want
of the like in England: or as sir Thomas Gresham did, when he bought
the stones in Flanders, wherwith he paued the Burse. But as he will
answer peraduenture, that he bargained for the whole mould and
substance of his workemanship in Flanders: so the Hullanders or Hull
men will saie, how that stockefish is light loding, and therfore they
did balasse their vessels with these Iseland stones, to keepe them
from turning ouer in their so tedious a voiage. And thus much brieflie
of our quarries of stone for building, wherein oftentimes the workemen
haue found strange things inclosed, I meane liuelie creatures shut vp
in the hard stones, and liuing there without respiration or breathing,
as frogs, todes, &c: whereof you shall read more in the chronologie
following: also in Caius Langius, William of Newburie, Agricola,
Cornelius of Amsterdam, Bellogius de aquatilibus, Albert the great,
lib. 19. cap. 9. "De rebus metallicis," and Goropius in Niloscopio,
pag. 237, &c. Sometime also they find pretious stones (though seldome)
and some of them perfectlie squared by nature, and much like vnto the
diamond, found of late in a quarrie of marble at Naples, which was so
perfectlie pointed, as if all the workemen in the world had
c[=o]sulted about the performance of that workemanship. I know that
these reports vnto some will séeme incredible, and therefore I stand
the longer vpon them; neuerthelesse omitting to speake particularlie
of such things as happen amongst vs, and rather séeking to confirme
the same by the like in other countries, I will deliuer a few more
examples, whereby the truth hereof shall so much the better appeare.
For in the middest of a stone not long since found at Chius, vpon the
breaking vp thereof, there was séene _Caput panisci_ inclosed therin,
very perfectlie formed as the beholders doo remember. How come the
grains of gold to be so fast inclosed in the stones that are & haue
béene found in the Spanish Bætis? But this is most maruellous, that a
most delectable and sweet oile, comparable to the finest balme, or
oile of spike in smell, was found naturallie included in a stone,
which could not otherwise be broken but with a smiths hammer. Goropius
dooth tell of a pearch perfectlie formed to be found in Britaine: but
[Sidenote: * [_Sic._]]
as then [*] committed into hard stone, vpon the top of a crag.
Aristotle and Theophrast speake of fishes digged out of the earth,
farre from the sea in Greece, which Seneca also confirmeth, but with
addition that they are perillous to be eaten. In pope Martins time, a
serpent was found fast inclosed in a rocke, as the kernell is within
the nut, so that no aire could come to it: and in my time another in a
coffin of stone at Auignion, wherein, a man had béene buried, which so
filled the roome, and laie so close from aire, that all men woondered
how it was possible for the same to liue and continue so long time
there. Finallie I my selfe haue séene stones opened, and within them
the substances of corrupted wormes like vnto adders (but far shorter)
whose crests and wrinkles of bodie appeared also therein, as if they
had bene ingraued in the stones by art and industrie of man. Wherefore
to affirme; that as well liuing creatures, as pretious stones, gold,
&c: are now and then found in our quarries, shall not hereafter be a
thing so incredible as manie talking philosophers, void, of all
experience, doo affirme, and wilfullie mainteine against such as hold
the contrarie.