London and Its Environs Described, vol. 4 (of 6): Containing an Account of Whatever is Most Remarkable for Grandeur, Elegance, Curiosity or Use, in the City and in the Country Twenty Miles Round ItAnonymous
History
London and Its Environs Described, vol. 4 (of 6): Containing an Account of Whatever is Most Remarkable for Grandeur, Elegance, Curiosity or Use, in the City and in the Country Twenty Miles Round It
Anonymous
London (England) -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; London (England) -- Gazetteers -- Early works to 1800
“The old wall, on its being repaired, was carried up of the same
thickness to eight or nine feet in height; or if higher, there was no
more of that work now standing. All this was apparently additional, and
of a make later than the other part underneath it, which was levelled
and brought to a plane for the raising of this new work upon it. The
outside, or that towards the suburbs, was faced with a coarse sort of
stone, not compiled with any great care or skill, nor disposed into a
regular method; but on the inside there appeared more marks of
workmanship and art. At the bottom were five layers composed of flint
and free stone; though they were not so in all parts, yet in some the
squares were near equal, about five inches diameter, and ranged in a
quincunx order. Over these were a layer of brick, then of hewn free
stone, and so alternately brick and stone to the top. These bricks, of
which there were four courses, were of the shape of those now in use,
but much larger, being near eleven inches in length, five in breadth,
and somewhat above two and a half in thickness. There was not one of the
Roman bricks above mentioned in all this part, nor was the mortar here
near so hard, as in that below; but from the description may be easily
collected, that this part when first made, with so various and orderly a
disposition of the materials, flint, stone, and brick, could not but
carry a very handsome aspect. Whether this was done at the expence of
the Barons in the reign of King John; or of the citizens in the reign of
King Henry III. or of King Richard II. or at what other time, I cannot
take upon me to ascertain, from accounts so defective and obscure as are
those which at this day remain of this affair.
“Upon the additional work now described, was raised a wall wholly of
brick, only that it terminating in battlements, these were topped with
copings of stone. It was two feet four inches in thickness, and somewhat
above eight feet in height. The bricks of these were of the same module
and size with those of the part underneath, How long they have been in
use is uncertain.” _Woodward’s Roman Antiquities, and Present State of
London._
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