Modern marbles

—1. British. Black marble is found at Ashford, Matlock, and Monsaldale in Derby shire; black and white in the north part of Devons hire; the variegated marbles of Devons hire are generally reddish, brownish, and grayish, variously veined with white and yellow, or the colours are often intimately blended; the marbles from Torbay and Babbacombe, display a great variety in the mixture of their colours; the Plymouth marble is either ash-coloured with black veins, or blackish-gray and white, shaded with black veins; the cliffs near Mary church exhibit marble quarries not only of great extent, but of superior beauty to any other in Devons hire, being either of a dove-coloured ground with reddish-purple and yellow veins, or of a black ground mottled with purplish globules. The green marble of Angle sea is not unlike the verde antico ; its colours being greenish-black, leek-green, and sometimes dull purplish, irregularly blended with white. The white part is limestone, the green shades proceed from serpentine and asbestos. There are several fine varieties of marble in Derby shire; the mottled-gray in the neighbourhood of Money ash, the light gray being rendered extremely beautiful by the number of purple veins which spread upon its polished surface in elegant irregular branches; but its chief ornament is the multitude of entrochi , with which this transition limestone-marble abounds. Much of the transition and carboniferous limestone of Wales and West more land is capable of being worked up into agreeable dark marbles. In Scotland, a particularly fine variety of white marble is found in immense beds, at A ynt in Sutherlandshire. A beautiful ash-gray marble of a very uniform grain, and susceptible of a fine polish, occurs on the north side of the ferry of Ballachulish in Inverne hire. One of the most beautiful varieties is that from the hill of Be lep het rich in Tiree, one of the He brides. 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 Iona 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 tremolite 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 the place of the shells, sometimes a umes 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, which when polished looks very beautiful. The county of Kerry affords several variegated marbles, not unlike the Kilkenny. France po e es a great many marble quarries which have been described by Brard, and of which a copious abstract is given under the article marble,— Rees’ Cyclopedia . The territory of Genoa furnishes several beautiful varieties of marble, the most remarkable of which is the polzevera di Genoa , called in French the vert d’Egypte and vert de mer . 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. Corsica po e es a good statuary marble of a fine close grain, and pure milky whitene , quarried at Ornofrio; it will bear comparison with that of Carrara; also a gray 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 gray, quarried at Magurega for altars and tombs. Near Mergozza the white saline marble with gray veins is found, with which the cathedral of Milan is built. The black marble of Bergamo is called para gone , 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 polveroso 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 cathedral of Milan. The green marble of Florence owes its colour to a copious admixture of steatite. 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, pa ing even into blackish-blue. The beautiful Sienna marble, or brocatello di Siena , has a yellow colour like the yolk of an egg, which is disposed in large irregular spots, surrounded with veins of bluish-red, pa ing 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 man del a to 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 inclining 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 form large orbicular spots, red, white, and bluish. A madreporic marble known under the name of pietra stellar i a , much employed in Italy, is entirely composed of star madrepores, converted into a gray and white substance, and is susceptible of an excellent polish. The village of Bretonico, in the Veronese, furnishes a splendid breccia marble, composed of yellow, steel-gray, and rose-coloured spots. That of Bergamo consists of black and gray fragments in a greenish cement. Florence marble, called also ruin and landscape marble, is an indurated calcareous marl. Sicily abounds in marbles, the most valuable of which is that called by the English stone-cutters, Sicilian jasper; it is red with large stripes like ribands, white, red, and sometimes green, which run zigzag with pretty acute angles. Among the Genoese marbles we may notice the highly esteemed variety called port or , 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 two pounds per cubic foot.