In his 1954 book The Pebbles on the Beach, Clarence Ellis shared his passion for the simple pleasure of pebble-hunting. In this extract, he details picks out some of the most common natural treasures you'll find on our shores and notes what they might look like after polishing. llustrations by Eleanor Crow.
The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide was reissued by Faber & Faber on August 2, with a foreword by Robert Macfarlane (£9.99)
1. Ovoid pebble of grey granite
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
2. Grey granite with one surface cut and polished
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
3. Pebble of schist with one surface cut and polished. The laminations are more clearly seen on an uncut surface
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
4. Flattened ovoid pebble of crystalline limestone (unpolished)
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
5. Fragment of whitish chert. Its angularities show that it has not been smoothed by the actions of the tides for long
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
6. Portion of a rounded flint pebble. Note the thick, white coating that the grey flint has acquired on the beach
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
7. Well-rounded pebble of fine-grained red sandstone
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
8. Flattened ovoid pebble of conglomerate
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
9. Highly polished ovoid pebble of red serpentine (white spot caused by a beam of light)
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
10. Fragment of jet from the Yorkshire coast, near Whitby
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
11. Ovoid pebble of red serpentine (unpolished)
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
12. Flattened ovoid pebble of schist (unpolished). The wearing down of the stone has given the laminations on the upper side a quaint resemblance to two eyes looking through spectacles
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
13. Cut and polished surface of an ovoid pebble of dolerite from the Whin Sill (Northumbrian Coast). The glossy black of the polished surface contrasts with the grey, speckled and worn exterior
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
14. Pebble of black chert that has lost some of its angularities and is in the process of being rounded on the beach
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
15. Evenly worn pebble of dolerite from the Whin Sill
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
16. Fragment of basalt, strongly resisting the grinding and smoothing of tidal action
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
17. Piece of amber from the coast of Suffolk
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
18. Carnelian pebble, highly polished
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
19. Broken piece of chalcedony
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
20. Oval slice of onyx polished and stained for commercial purposes
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
21. Amber pebble, highly polished
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
22. Pebble of onyx. The banding is faintly discernible through the beach coating
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
23. Ovoid pebble of carnelian (unpolished)
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
24. Pebble of ‘fortification’ agate. The ground plan of the ‘fortress’ can be seen on the polished side
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
25. Oval slice of agate pebble, polished and stained for commercial purposes
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
26. Pebble of citrine, with whitish beach coating
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
27. Citrine pebble, highly polished
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
28. Cut pebble of purple jasper (unpolished)
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
29. Group of quartz prisms
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
30. Flattened cylindrical pebble of green serpentine
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
31. Well-rounded pebble of opaque quartz
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
32. Fragment of gabbro with one side cut and polished
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
33. Ovoid pebble of grit, veined with quartz
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
34. Polished pebble of purple jasper
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
35. Ovoid pebble of quartzite with broken side uppermost, revealing the structure of tightly compacted grains
Credit: Illustration by Eleanor Crow, taken from ‘The Pebbles on the Beach: A Spotter’s Guide’ by Clarence Ellis (Faber & Faber, £9.99)
