[125] I am reading my proof sheets on the 10th September,
1914, so it is necessary to add that the Pont des
Trous at Tournai has renewed its military value,
aiding the Belgians in their heroic efforts against
that avalanche of inhumanity, the German Army.
[126] The religious order of Pontist Brothers came to
France from Italy. It was called the order of
Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, and its chief resided at
Lucca. From about the year 1286 the French brothers
had a great hospice in Paris, built on the site now
occupied by the church of Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas
and the deaf and dumb asylum. In the fourteenth
century the order confined its attention to the care
of pilgrims, and at last--in 1459--it was suppressed
by Pope Pius II.
[127] The triumphal arch of Germanicus, dating from the
time of Tiberius. It is extant at Saintes; but when
it was reconstructed after its removal from the
bridge it suffered much from a mixture of new stones
with the old. It is an arch with two passages 38 ft.
high.
[128] There are many old arches with two or three sets of
voussoirs. Over the Loire, at Brives-Charensac, there
is a Roman specimen with two rings, now a ruined
bridge. Some English examples: the Jolly Miller’s
Bridge over the Dee, Chester; Bradford-on-Avon,
Wilts, the round arches; Bideford, Devon, twenty
arches, built in the fourteenth century with help
from indulgences sanctioned by Grandison, Bishop of
Exeter; Lostwithiel, Llangollen, Fountains Abbey,
Bishop’s Bridge at Norwich, West Rasen, Lincolnshire;
Eamont Bridge, Penrith, a triple ring of archstones;
Higherford Bridge, near Colne, reputed to be Roman,
a wrong attribution, I believe; St. Neots, the most
important arch is very interesting; and the Abbot’s
Bridge at Bury St. Edmunds. This one is Early
English, and its three remarkable arches give us a
parallel to the ecclesiastical workmanship in the
arches at Crowland. The piers also and the buttresses
are unsecular.
[129] It may be remarked that in the Persian language the
words _pul-y-sangi_ signify the “stone bridge,”
and it is not improbable that the western people
in the service of the Emperor may have given this
appellation to the place where a bridge of great
celebrity was thrown over the river, which is here
applied to the river itself. It will be found to
occur in Elphinstone’s “Account of Caubul,” p. 429,
and in Ouseley’s “Ibn Haukul,” p. 277.--Colonel Yule.
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