Rowtor Rocks

[At Land's End] a few years ago an officer of the British Navy amused himself and his crew by the wanton overthrow of [a rocking stone] from its balance. On representation properly made, he was obliged to restore the stone to its former state at his own cost.

It would have been well if the idle and foolish visitors of Matlock had been compelled to do the same to the logan stones at Rowtor Rocks, near Bakewell in Derbyshire. In the year 1793 there were, on an eminence of about the height of a common barrow, three stones in a state of perfect vibration. Two of them were small, not perhaps a yard high, but one, nearly spherical, was about ten feet high; and could be made to vibrate by continued though easy pushes.

It should seem that a little cost might restore the stones to their ancient state of vibration. The act would be gratifying to the rational antiquary, and reprove that idle and indeed wicked propensity to wanton mischief in which Englishmen of almost all ranks are eminent above the people of all other nations.