Beginners, however, always run some risk, being naturally enthusiastic; and the best way for them is to lay down a few sound rules, and to adhere to these strictly. One good maxim is, to pay for all work upon the spot. Even an enthusiast will soon grow weary of parting with ready money for mere trash.
Some persons set up a wheel, &c., of their own, and operate upon their treasure at home. I do not recommend this course to any one, unless he were the son of a lapidary, as Achilles was “son of Peleus,” and intend to devote himself to the occupation. For most amateurs it will be found difficult. It is five to one that a young hand signalizes his apprenticeship by spoiling his best agates, cutting his fingers, and damaging his machinery. The only advantage, as far as I know, which such a plan may possess, is that you might try some curious experiments in working at odd pebbles.
A lapidary’s implements, if complete as they ought to be, will cost him from seven to ten pounds. About five pounds’ worth of diamond is a very good commencing stock. Five pounds more will fit up his shop with a counter and drawers to lock, and his work-room with a table, stool, hammers, a few cloths, and a good lens. This is all that he requires, besides knowledge and patience.
Suppose the entire outlay should amount to twenty pounds; in a good watering-place, on the south coast of England, he ought to make from a hundred to a hundred and fifty pounds a year, without doing any night-work. But by day he must not spare hands nor eyes: and he cannot afford to make any serious mistakes with his customers. If he cuts a fine choanite the wrong way, or mutilates a rare alcyonite, or robs a promising “landscape-pebble” of its pellucid sky, it is well-nigh over with his professional reputation; and that once gone, he will get little custom of value. When I was last in Ventnor, the sea had thrown up some singularly fine pebbles for several successive tides. Three working lapidaries rented houses in the town; but all the more valuable orders went to one of them. This man knew admirably well how to handle almost any stone which was brought to him; while his two brethren in the craft, though both of them hard-working men, were comparatively ignorant. They were like quack-doctors, and he was a learned professor.
CHAPTER III.
THE CONTENTS OF A GOOD BEACH, AND HOW TO OBTAIN THEM.
I have always been fond of trying conclusions with Nature at first hand. When a boy at school, I learnt to swim by following some bigger boys, who could swim already, into water which was quite out of all our depths.
I had never till then tried, except in shallow places, which, whatever people may think, afford no criterion of how it will fare with you in a drowning current. On this occasion we swam about fifty yards, in ten-foot water, not without trepidation at first on my part, but towards the end I gained breath and confidence. After that, I never had any difficulty, whether in lakes or rivers, and I have ventured into scores of them at all seasons, and that without the slightest previous notice of their depth or temperature.