362 



The Doctor also mentions several springs of this kind in Stafford- 

 shire, and remarks that lapidescent springs deposit thin earthy 

 matter on some plants, and not on others, though growing together 

 in the same group. Mr. Wallis* also speaks of a brook at Simon- 

 bourn, where, he observes, the mosses and liverworts become stony ; 

 whilst the primroses and geraniums hold up their heads, and retain 

 their native hue. 



Dr. Plot also relates -f-, " that at Daulton, on the south side of 

 Mendip, the workmen saw out of great blocks of stone, of four 

 or five ton weight, which have been dug from the quarries there, 

 large pieces of fair cleft oak included in the midst of them/' 

 Speaking of the growth of stone, the Doctor proceeds to say, 

 " This is as indisputable a proof as any I have met with, except 

 one at Newcastle-under-Line, in this county; where, at a place 

 called the Gallows-tree (the ancient place for the execution of the 

 malefactors of that town), there was found, within memory, in a 

 firm block of stone, dug out of the quarry there, an entire skull of 

 a man, with the teeth in it, &c. whereof Mr.Weever, an alderman of 

 that town, told me he had one, long in his possession : which place, 

 when used for executions, 'tis like might be nothing else but sandy 

 land, wherein they used to bury the executed bodies, which in pro- 

 cess of time has thus turned into stone/' The deposit of lapideous 

 matter from the waters in the neighbourhood of Mendip has been 

 lately instanced, according to a very interesting paper on the sub- 

 ject, by its having thus partly filled up a cavern, and having in- 

 crusted, in a Tery curious manner, human bones, which had been 

 there deposited. 



.Near the western bank of the Derwent, at Matlock, is a spring, 

 well known by the name of the petrifying spring, and by the va- 

 rious substances, which accident and contrivance has occasioned to 



* The Natural History of Northumberland, p. 24. 

 t The Natural History of Staffordshire, p. HI. 



