Richard Bright and George Cumberland

“ Great part of Clifton is built upon this rock, which is also found in the country south of the Avon, forming that part of the hill above Ashton on which Sir H. Smith's house stands, and passing a little to the south-east of Belmont. It is in the cavities and veins of this rock that the beautiful quartz crystals, called Bristol stone, are found. They form 6-sided pyramids; some are of the highest lustre and transparency, others variously coloured by iron ore, or containing acicular crystals of that substance, or of manganese; some are said to be pierced with needles of sulphate of strontian. ”

“ The hot spring at the Wells rises in the limestone 26 feet below high water mark, and 10 feet above low water, and no water is found at Clifton until the wells are sunk nearly to that depth. When you come to the sand-ridge upon which Leigh is situated, the springs are always found to rise in a high level, and they afford a good supply of water. In the horizontal strata to the west of Leigh very good water is obtained by sinking to the second or thick bed of breccia, or at the utmost by sinking a few feet into the stratum. ”

“ The calcareous crystals have either the form of the primitive rhomb, or of the dog's-tooth spar, and are sometimes covered over with an incrustation of smaller crystals of carbonate of lime. The quartz is crystallized in six-sided pyramids. Besides the sulphate of strontian which is found crystallized in the cavities in small quantity, it occurs in large masses either imbedded in the breccia, or lying between the two beds of it. ”