CuAP. II.

MARBLE. 491
rally reddisli, brownisli, and greylsli, variously veined with -vvliite and yellow, and tlie colour*
are often intimately blended. The South Devonshire marbles, now chiefly worked at
St. M<iry Church, Tor(]uay, from the Bahbacomhe limestone, are calletl alter the name
of the estate or <]uarry fiom whence they are taken, such as the Petiton, Ogwell, Ash-
burtun, Babbacombe, &c. The colours are red, grey, and variegated, of almost e^ery
tint. Tile sizes of tlie blocks vary from 1 to 10 tons ;
tlie ordinary length runs from 4 to
5 feet ; 7 to 8 feet is considered as a good length. At Ipplepen are reddish varieties that
are extremely handsome. They are of different qualities, as compact, porcellanic, granular,
crystalline, shelly, magnesian, pozolanic or water, stinking or swine. Tlie Bartons (juarry
at Ipiilepen, belonging to INIr. Field, of Parliament Street, is worked at SO to 100 tiet in
dejuh ;
the lowest beds are about 8 feet thick, and of a mottled character, being dark red
and white in colour ; the deposit over it is streaky and lighter in colour. Blocks of
18 feet square are now conveyed to London. This quarry has lately supplied the mono-
lithic polished shafts for the forty columns (18 out of one block), each 12 feet 3 inches in
lingth, and 18^ inches diameter on the fillet, with many others, for the new building of
the National Provincial Bank of England, in Bishopsgale Street. Tlie bases are of Irish
black marble, and tlie caps of the cream-coloured Iluddlestone stone. In the corridor of
the new Freemasons' Hall are four columns, two being from the Bartons quarries, and
two of Laiiguedoc marble: eight others are placed in the coflee-room of the Charing Cross
Hotel. 'J he limestones of Plymouth are not so fine. They are of two sorts; one, an ash
colour shaded with black veins ; the other blackish grey and white, shaded in concentric
spots interspersed with irregular red spots; or black with white veins about a quarter to
an inch in width.
168\d. Serpentine,
"
beyond a\\ qvesUon, the most beautiful of the ornamental stones
of this country
"
(Hunt), is chiefly found in the sea-bound peninsida called the Lizard,
tiie most southerly land in Great 13ritain. This rock, with another called dialhige, con-
stitute nearly halfof the Lizard peninsula. Serpentine has evidently been under the influence
of heat. At one spot it seems to shade off" into the hornblende slate in wiiich it is embedded
;
at another, it has every appearance of having been thrust up among the hornblende slate.
Sir Henry de la Beche wrote, many years since, that serpentine ought to be employed
for decorative purposes. He named Landewednack, Cadgwith, Kennack, Cove, and
Goosehilly Downs, as four sites whence beautiful specimens might be olitained, vary-
ing in colour, as, an olive green base striped with greenish-blue steatite veins ; another
specimen, very hard, with a reddish base studded witli crystals of tb.e mineral coWi^A duiHage,
which when cut through and polished, gives forth a beautiful metallic green glitter,
heightened still further by the reddish tint of the mass in which it is embedded. To the
Exhibition of 1851, Penzance sent fine specimens in all kinds of ornaments. The blocks
are small, but sometimes they have been obtained 7 feet in length and 4 or 5 tons in
weight; the largest was 8 feet long, 3 feet v.-ide, and
2^
feet thick; from 2 to 3 feet
lon^ is the usual size. The best blocks are worth from 5 to 10 guineas per ton, according
to their weight, the larger the size the higher is the value in an increasing proportion.
Chemically, steatite and serpentine differ little from each other, and as they are quarried in
juxtaposition, specimens of both kinds are selected for use
;
but serpentine being much
harder and more richly coloured, is appropriated to the larger articles.
1681e. In the Bulldtr of 1865, p. 877, it is stated that serpentine is not a marble, but a
tale containing a tolerable quantity of chromate of iron. It is sometimes good for external
ornamentation, but never when it has the white streaks so commonly seen in it. Hunt's
Handbook to the 1851 Exhibition, gives the following analysis of serpentine obtained at the
Lizard
:
INIagnesia,
38
'SS ;
silica, 42-50
;
lime and alumina, 2-10
;
oxide of iron, 1 50*
oxide of manganese, 10; oxide of chromium, 0-,30 ; the colouring matter is probably a
combination of chromium, iron, and manganese. Iir his Handbook to the 1862 Exhibition, it
is called a hydrated silicitate of magnesia, composed of silica, 43*64
;
magnesia, 43 35 ;
and
water, 13-01 = 100. Besides the sujiply from the Lizard, it is obtained in Anglesea,
Portsoy in Banfishlre, Unst and Fetlar in Scotland. The
"
green marble," or serpentine,
of Connemara, is noticed among the Irish marbles. This material is sawn by steam power
with sand and water ; and when brought into the form required, it is ground, turned,
rubbed, and polished until it presents a beautiful glossy surface, said to be capable of resist-
ing grease and acids, which is not the case with marble in general.
1681/". It is said that two brackets of old monuments in Westminster Abbey ;
the panel-
bordering of the monument erected to the memory of Addison
;
the brackets of a chimney-
inece at Hampton Court, are all carved in serpentine, and the present condition of these
specimens shows the dui ability of it.
"
Equal to granite in durability," is the statement
made in advertisements, but probably some further time must elapse before such a statement
can be endorsed, though it may be allowed that it appears to stand atmospheric influences
remarkably veil. Experiments on the strength of serpentine have been noticed in
par. \50\!g. Therein is mentioned a shaft of Poltesco grey-green Devonshire serpentine,
one of the weakest examples, which went across and not with the vein : the latter running