A colony of Italian snails have been found living in a marble balustrade taken to a historic English house more than a century ago.

Experts say that the snails at Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire are the first of their species -- Papillifera papillaris -- to be discovered in the wild in England, although wild might not be the right word for the manicured grounds of an estate, The Telegraph reports. The snails have spread from the balustrade at least to a fountain 200 yards away.

The tiny snails are common in Mediterranean countries.

The snails were spotted by a volunteer cleaning crew that happened to include someone with an interest in them.

It is astonishing and almost embarrassing that they have remained undiscovered until now, Matthew Oates, a natural history expert with the National Trust, which owns Cliveden, told The Telegraph. Our excuse is that we didn't take the property over until 1942 and so from our point of view we failed to spot them for only 56 years.

Cliveden, built in the 19th century and formerly home of the Astor family, is best known as the place where John Profumo is supposed to have met Christine Keeler, kicking off one of the spiciest British scandals of the 1960s, The Telegraph said.

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