“For in the midst of a stone not long since found at Chius, upon the breaking up thereof, there was seen –Caput panisci– enclosed therein, very perfectly formed, as the beholders do remember. How come the grains of gold to be so fast enclosed in the stones that are and have been found in the Spanish Baetis? But this is most marvellous, that a most delectable and sweet oil, comparable to the finest balm, or oil of spike in smell, was found naturally enclosed in a stone, which could not otherwise be broken but with a smith’s hammer.

Finally, I myself have seen stones opened, and within them the substances of corrupted worms like unto adders (but far shorter), whose crests and wrinkles of body appeared also therein as if they had been engraved in the stones by art and industry of man. Wherefore to affirm that as well living creatures as precious stones, gold, etc., are now and then found in our quarries, shall not hereafter be a thing so incredible as many talking philosophers, void of all experience, do affirm and wilfully maintain against such as hold the contrary.”

‘Of Quarries of Stone for Building’, in: ‘Elizabethan England’: from “A Description of England,” by William Harrison (in “Holinshed’s Chronicles”). Edited by Lothrop Withington, [1577, Book II., Chapter 11]