Londinium, Architecture and the CraftsLethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
History
Londinium, Architecture and the Crafts
Lethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
England -- Antiquities, Roman; London (England) -- Antiquities, Roman; Romans -- England -- London
I have been speaking of general principles and history, not limiting
myself to Britain and Londinium, but the evolution of the wall is an
interesting introduction to our proper subject.
[Illustration:
FIG. 1.
]
In Londinium wrought stonework must have been very sparingly used
because of the difficulty and cost of transit. There were columns,
pilasters, plinths, cornices, etc., but it may be doubted whether there
were any buildings other than small monuments wholly of such masonry.
Even in the first century the “details” of masonry were far from being
“correctly classical,” and ornaments were very redundant and inventive.
Provincial Roman building was something very different from the grammars
propounded by architects. As we may study it in the fine museums of
Trèves, Lyons, and London, it seems more like proto-Romanesque than a
late form of “classic.” The Corinthian capitals of Cirencester are very
fine works indeed; the acanthus is treated freshly, the points of the
leaves being sharp and arranged as in Byzantine work; a sculptured
pediment and ornamental frieze at Bath are also free and fine. On the
other hand, moulded work is usually coarse and poor. An interesting
architectural fragment found in London was the upper drum of a column
which had several bands of leafage around the shaft and was a remote
descendant of the acanthus column at Delphi (Fig. 1). Parts of small
columns and their bases have been found, the latter with crude
mouldings. I mention them because small circular work was usually turned
in a lathe like Saxon baluster-shafts. A small capital from Silchester
in the Reading Museum is of the bowl form so characteristic of
Romanesque art.
[Illustration:
FIG. 2.
]
A few fragments of mouldings and other stones are in our museums (Fig.
2), and a considerable number of semicircular stones have been found
which must have been copings. Large wrought stones were usually cramped
together; lewis holes show how they were hoisted; smaller wall-facings
were, I think, cut with an axe instead of a chisel. We find mention of
one stone arch (a small niche?) in a Minute of the Society of
Antiquaries: “Mar. 8, 1732: Mr. Sam Gale acquainted the Society, yt in
digging up some old foundations near ye new Fabric erected Anno 1732 for
ye Bank of England Mr. Sampson ye architect discovered a large old wall,
eight foot under ye surface of ye ground, consisting of chalk stone and
rubble, next to Threadneedle Street, in which was an arch of stone and a
Busto of a man placed in it standing upon ye plinth, which he carefully
covered up again: there was no inscription but he believed it to be
Roman.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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