I followed, after a while, to fetch them back, and
we called into one or two of the many shops in the village, which have
articles manufactured of the spar for sale. Some of these are nothing
short of magnificent. There was an inlaid table, valued at sixty
guineas, and a splendid ornament for any drawing-room; another, inlaid
with the squares of a chess-board. We heard of a table in the possession
of the Marquis of Westminster, the value of which is three hundred
guineas. It would be easy and pleasant to spend a great deal of money in
such things as we saw there; but all our purchases in Matlock did not
amount to more than twenty shillings, invested in brooches, shawl-pins,
little vases and toys, which will be valuable to us as memorials on the
other side of the water. After this, we visited a petrifying cave, of
which there are several hereabouts. The process of petrifaction requires
some months, or perhaps a year or two, varying with the size of the
article to be operated upon. The articles are placed in the cave, under
the drippings from the roof, and a hard deposit is formed upon them, and
sometimes, as in the case of a bird's-nest, causes a curious result,--
every straw and hair being immortalized and stiffened into stone. A
horse's head was in process of petrifaction; and J----- bought a broken
eggshell for a penny, though larger articles are expensive. The process
would appear to be entirely superficial,--a mere crust on the outside of
things,--but we saw some specimens of petrified oak, where the stony
substance seemed to be intimately incorporated with the wood, and to have
really changed it into stone.
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