MARBLE 219 



landshire. A beautiful ash-grey marble, of a very uniform grain, and susceptible of 

 a fine polish, occurs on the north side of the ferry of Ballachulish in Invernessshire. 

 One of the most beautiful varieties is that from the hill of Belephetrich in Tiree, one 

 of the Hebrides. Its colours are pale blood-red, light flesh-red, and reddish-white 

 with dark-green particles of hornblende, or rather sahlite, diffused through the 

 general base. The compact marble of lona is of a fine grain, a dull-white colour, 

 somewhat resembling pure compact felspar. It is said by Bournon to consist of an 

 intimate mixture of tremolito and carbonate of lime, sometimes with yellowish or 

 greenish-yellow spots. The carboniferous limestone of many of the coal-basins in 

 the Lowlands of Scotland may be worked into a tolerably good marble for chimney- 

 pieces. 



In Ireland the Kilkenny marble is the one best known, having a black ground more 

 or less varied with white marks produced by fossils. The spar which occupies 

 the place of the shells sometimes assumes a greenish-yellow colour. An exceedingly 

 fine black marble has also been raised at Crayleath in the county of Down. At 

 Louthlougher, in the county of Tipperary, a fine purple marble is found. The county 

 of Kerry affords several variegated marbles not unlike the Kilkenny ; and a fine red- 

 dish marble is quarried in the county Cork. A serpentinous limestone in Connemara 

 forms a prettily variegated green marble known as ' Irish green.' 



France possesses a great many marble quarries, which have been described by 

 Brard, and of which a copious extract is given under the article Marble, Eees's 

 Cyclopadia. 



The territory of Genoa furnishes several beautiful varieties of marble, the most 

 remarkable of which is the polzevcra di Genoa, called in French the vert d'Egypte 

 and vert de mcr. It is a mixture of granular limestone with a talcose and serpentine 

 substance disposed in veins ; and it is sometimes mixed with a reddish body. This 

 marble was formerly much employed in Italy, France, and England, for chimney- 

 pieces, but its sombre appearance has put it out of fashion. Among the Genoese 

 marbles we may notice the highly-esteemed variety called portor. on account of the 

 brilliant yellow veins in a deep black ground. The most beautiful kind comes from 

 Porto Venese ; and Louis XIV. caused a great deal of it to be worked up for the 

 decoration of Versailles. It costs now '21, per cubic foot. 



Corsica possesses a good statuary marble, of a fine close grain, and pure milky- 

 whiteness, quarried at Ornofrio ; it will bear comparison with that of Carrara : also a 

 grey marble (bardiglio~), a cipolin, and some other varieties. The island of Elba has 

 immense quarries of a white marble with blackish-green veins. 



Among the innumerable varieties of Italian marbles, the following deserve especial 

 notice : 



The rovigio, a white marble found at Padua. The white marble of St. Julien, at 

 Pisa, of which the cathedral and celebrated slanting tower are built. The Biancone 

 marble, white with a tinge of grey, quarried at Magurega for altars and tombs. 

 Near Mergozza a white marble with grey veins is found, with which the cathedral 

 of Milan is built. The black marble of Bergamo is called paragone, from its black 

 colour, like touchstone ; it has a pure, intense tint, and is susceptible of a fine polish. 

 The pure black marble of Como is also much esteemed. The pclveroso of Pistoya is 

 a black marble sprinkled with dots ; and the beautiful white marble with black spots, 

 from the Lago Maggiore, has been employed for decorating the interior of many 

 churches in the Milanese. The Margorre marble, found in several parts of the 

 Milanese, is bluish veined with brown, and composes part of the dome of the cathe- 

 dral of Milan. The green marble of Florence owes its colour to a copious admixture 

 of serpentine. Another green marble, called verde di Prado, occurs in Tuscany, near 

 the little town of Prado. It is marked with spots of a deeper green than the rest, 

 passing even into blackish-blue. The beautiful Sienna marble, or brocatdlo di Siena, 

 has a yellow colour like the yolk of an egg, which is disposed in large irregular spot*, 

 suiTounded~with veins of bluish-red, passing sometimes into purple. At Montarenti, 

 two leagues from Sienna, another yellow marble is met with, which is traversed by 

 black and purplish-black veins. The Brema marble is yellow, with white spots. 

 The mandelatt of the Italians is a light-red marble with yellowish-white spots, found 

 at Luggezzana, in the Veronese. The red marble of Verona is of a red rather in- 

 clining to yellow or hyacinth ; a second variety, of a dark red, composes the vast 

 amphitheatre of Verona. Another marble is found near Verona, with large white 

 spots in a reddish and greenish paste : very fine columns have been made of it _ The 

 occhio di pavone is an Italian shell-marble, in which the shells forms large orbicular 

 spots, red, white, and bluish. A madreporic marble, known under the name of pietra 

 stellaria, much employed in Italy, is entirely composed of star madrepores, converted 

 into a grey-and- white substance, and is susceptible of _ an excellent polish. The 

 village of Bretonico, in the Veronese, furnishes a splendid breccia marble, composed 



