The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-07 00:00:00

The Dripping Well at Knaresborough.

I entered the enclosure where the well is with a certain
amount of fear, lest I myself should in a moment be con-
verted into stone by this modern wholesale statue maker;
bat I summoned up courage and knocked at the door. It
was opened by a civil Yorkshire lassie, and we saw before
us this far-famed curiosity—a massive frowning rock, over
which a perpetual shower of water fell incessantly into the
beautiful clear pool below, with a musical and somewhat
melancholy sound. About half way down, on the
face of the rock, were suspended a number of curious-look-
ing objects. I asked the girl to explain them. She at once
began, with a true Yorkshire accent and with wonderful
volubility of tongue, " There you will s-_,e a pump.
kin and a stocking, a squirrel and a stock-dove, a
small hotter and a nedgog (hedge-hog), a branch and .a
pheasant, a man's hat and a sponge, a moss basket and a
bird's nest, a weasel and a stocking." " For goodness' sake
my girl, gently gently, say it over again," but she was gone;
other visitors knocked at the door ; they also came down to
where we were standing, and the girl began again, "a pump-
kin and a stocking, a small hotter and a nedgeog" down to
the stocking at the end of the sentence. We then left the
girl and looked about for ourselves. The fact ia, that the
rocks about Knaresborough are composed of magnesian
limestone, and the lime becomes dissolved in spring water—
so highly charged indeed is it with mineral matter that in a
gallon of water there are of carbonate of lime 23 parts, sul-
phate of magnesia 11 parts, and sulphae of lime 132 parts,
and a pint weighs 24 grains heavier than common water. The
water seems willing enough to get rid of its mineral burdens,
and anything, therefore, placed within its reach, so to say,
it converts into stone, like the Gorgon's head on the shield
of Minerva. The owners of the well have taken advantage
of this fact, and hung up miscellaneous objects which are
ordinarily supposed to be converted into stone. This is
not, however, actually the case ; they are merely covered
over with a coating of stone-like material, which, of
course, takes the form of the objects which it encrusts.
I have now before me a moor-hen and a "nedgeog" from
the well at Knaresborough. The form of these matures
is not, as may be imagined, very well preserved. The
hedgehog reminds one much of the hedgehogs made of
sponge-cake which one sees in the pastrycook's shop. I
have made a section of my fossil moorhen, and found the
stony coating vary hard indeed, and much like in appear-
ance, as indeed it is in composition, to the fur which is found
inside ordinary tea lefties. The feathers, bones, &c., of the
bird have almost disappeared from decay. The cast, however,
of .'t is accurately taken by the deposit from the well. I have
also a wig, but this is a terribly shapeless mass, and very
fragile. In the showroom of the hotel by the well are many
really beautifully specimens of enerustrations, particularly
the birds' nests and a pheasant, where the form is accurately
preserved. There is also a badger, which would form an ex-
cellent museum specimen, for the traces of the rough hair
are distinctly perceptible, even though it is one solid mass
of stone. I have also a bird's nest or two—thrushes, linnets,
and other small birds—the eggs In them. Both eggs and
naemsetplalle trarei hard and solid, in fact, a perfect mass of heavy
stone, and very pretty ornaments for the drawing room they
ashre. I have broken one of these eggs, and find the egg
gAI andm a
bosets
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corner where we found them. We could see the individual
leaves, moss, branches, .e,0.1 as plain as though they had
just been brought there,bu,tazwehed
naslsoaltitdemaspatewdrteoarthemcaorvveed
n a
leaf—no ;it was hard, firm
a marble tombstone. A most beautiful group of natural
objects
o
were these, and much more striking than the hideous,
g we saw hung
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up up.