any
value in comparison of those whose places of growth are utterly unknown
unto me, and whereof the black marble spotted with green is none of the
vilest sort, as may appear by parcel of the pavement of the lower part of
the choir of Paul's in London (and also in Westminster), where some pieces
thereof are yet to be seen and marked, if any will look for them. If
marble will not serve, then have we the finest alabaster that may
elsewhere be had, as about Saint David's of Wales; also near to Beau
manor, which is about four or five miles from Leicester, and taken to be
the best, although there are divers other quarries hereof beyond the Trent
(as in Yorkshire, etc., and fully so good as that) whose names at this
time are out of my remembrance. What should I talk of the plaster of
Axholm (for of that which they dig out of the earth in sundry places of
Lincoln and Derbyshire, wherewith they blanch their houses instead of
lime, I speak not), certes it is a fine kind of alabaster. But sith it is
sold commonly but after twelvepence the load, we judge it to be but vile
and coarse. For my part I cannot skill of stone, yet in my opinion it is
not without great use for plaster of Paris, and such is the mine of it
that the stones (thereof) lie in flakes one upon another like planks or
tables, and under the same is an (exceeding) hard stone very profitable
for building, as hath oftentimes been proved. (This is also to be marked
further of our plaster white and grey, that not contented with the same,
as God by the quarry doth send and yield it forth, we have now devised to
cast it in moulds for windows and pillars of what form and fashion we
list, even as alabaster itself: and with such stuff sundry houses in
Yorkshire are furnished of late. But of what continuance this device is
likely to prove the time to come shall easily betray. In the meantime Sir
Ralph Burcher, knight, hath put the device in practice, and affirmeth that
six men in six months shall travel in that trade to see greater profit to
the owner than twelve men in six years could before this trick was
invented.)

If neither alabaster nor marble doth suffice, we have the touchstone,
called in Latin _lydius lapis_ (shining as glass), either to match in
sockets with our pillars of alabaster, or contrariwise: or if it please
the workmen to join pillars of alabaster or touch with sockets of brass,
pewter, or copper, we want not (also) these metals. So that I think no
nation