Bell's Cathedrals: The Church of St. Martin, Canterbury: An Illustrated Account of its History and FabricRoutledge, C. F. (Charles Francis)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Church of St. Martin, Canterbury: An Illustrated Account of its History and Fabric
Routledge, C. F. (Charles Francis)
St. Martin's Church (Canterbury, England)
this extension) have their jambs of chalk-blocks filled in with _white_
mortar, while the arches are turned in Roman bricks and rough voussoirs
of Kentish rag-stone, with interstices of bright _pink_ mortar. These
windows are certainly built _more Romano_, and no sufficient evidence
has yet been brought forward to upset the opinion strongly held by many
archæologists--that they are _Roman_. The variation of the mortar used
in their construction from _white_ mortar in the jambs to _pink_ mortar
in the voussoirs of the arch is a very noticeable feature, and can be
exactly paralleled in the Roman Pharos at Dover. It is certainly _prima
facie_, a strong evidence of Roman workmanship. The windows are 2 ft. 8
in. wide, and would have measured 4 ft. from sill to crown. Their jambs
are splayed at an angle that would allow about 12 ins. for the actual
opening on the outer face of the wall. Their sills are respectively 9
ft. 9 in. and 10 ft. above the ground level, and the lower portion of
the south window is filled up with thin mediæval tiles, such as we find
here and there in the fourteenth-century tower, during the building of
which the _extended_ windows were undoubtedly blocked up. These _extended_
windows have no voussoirs, but were cut out of the original walling, and
simply plastered. Near them are portions of pink plaster still adhering
to the wall.
Excavations have been made below the northern portion of this western wall
in hopes of finding some of the original flooring of the church, but could
not be further prosecuted because vaults, and even detached skeletons,
were met with at a distance of only one foot below the existing pews.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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