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 towm), 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 process 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 subject, by its having 
thus partly filled up a cavern, and having incrusted, in a very 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, from the various 
substances, which accident and contrivance has occasioned to be 
invested with the calcareous matter which it deposits, such as twigs 
* The Natural History of Northumberland, p. 24. 
t The Natural History of Staffordshire, p. 171. 
