Victorian Rockery

IRON FURNACE SLAG, similar to what I'd seen in the wall yesterday, is used for decorative effect in the Victorian rockery of a mill owner's house. The blackish lumps of slag contrast with rough chunks of a white mineral, which I can scratch with my finger-nail. Is this calcite? Or fluorite? Suddenly A-level Geology seems long distant. If only I had a phial of dilute hydrochloric acid to do the 'fizz' test.

Colonising one of the ironstone blocks are the miniature cups of a Cladonia lichen.

The house itself was built of brick in about 1865, but the lintels, bay windows and, most impressively, the front door are picked out in sandstone. The carving at the head of the pillars looks remarkably fresh. Amongst the acanthus leaves are some of the beasts that lived on the edge of the Victorian Gothick imagination; a dog, a slithering lizard, a leopard- or bear-like beast and, my favourite, a round-eyed owl.

A Red-tailed Bumble Bee, which I identify as Bombus lapidarius flies above the rockery in the sunshine. The books describe this as mainly a southern species in Britain, usually restricted to the coast in the north. A large Queen Wasp lands on the stone-work and gives the impression that she is prospecting for a home.

Back home, I rebuild part of a low retaining wall of our herb bed. Built of traditional twentieth century suburban materials - broken concrete paviers and the remains of a concrete coal bunker. I find a small Toad and Frog snugly at home in its crevices, along with Centipede, Millipede, Woodlouse and a variety of spiders. I build bigger and I hope better crevice homes into the wall. I'd like to have a similar wall that faces south. But this one is fine for toads.

The holes will probably be taken by a queen wasp and we will then have wasp visitors to our late summer barbecues.

Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail;'richard@daelnet.co.uk'