Old and New London, Volume I: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its PlacesThornbury, Walter
History
Old and New London, Volume I: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places
Thornbury, Walter
London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
The existing relics of Roman London are far more valuable and more
numerous than is generally supposed. Innumerable tesselated pavements,
masterpieces of artistic industry and taste, have been found in the
City. A few of these should be noted. In 1854 part of the pavement of a
room, twenty-eight feet square, was discovered, when the Excise Office
was pulled down, between Bishopsgate Street and Broad Street. The
central subject was supposed to be the Rape of Europa. A few years
before another pavement was met with near the same spot. In 1841 two
pavements were dug up under the French Protestant Church in Threadneedle
Street. The best of these we have engraved. In 1792 a circular pavement
was found in the same locality; and there has also been dug up in the
same street a curious female head, the size of life, formed of coloured
stones and glass. In 1805 a beautiful Roman pavement was disinterred on
the south-west angle of the Bank of England, near the gate opening into
Lothbury, and is now in the British Museum. In 1803 a fine specimen of
pavement was found in front of the East-India House, Leadenhall Street,
the central design being Bacchus reclining on a panther. In this
pavement twenty distinct tints had been successfully used. Other
pavements have been cut through in Crosby Square, Bartholemew Lane,
Fenchurch Street, and College Street. The soil, according to Mr. Roach
Smith, seems to have risen over them at the rate of nearly a foot a
century.
The statuary found in London should also not be forgotten. One of the
most remarkable pieces was a colossal bronze head of the Emperor
Hadrian, dredged up from the Thames a little below London Bridge. It is
now in the British Museum. A colossal bronze hand, thirteen inches long,
was also found in Thames Street, near the Tower. In 1857, near London
Bridge, the dredgers found a beautiful bronze Apollino, a Mercury of
exquisite design, a priest of Cybele, and a figure supposed to be
Jupiter. The Apollino and Mercury are masterpieces of ideal beauty and
grace. In 1842 a _chef d'oeuvre_ was dug out near the old Roman wall in
Queen Street, Cheapside. It was the bronze stooping figure of an archer.
It has silver eyes; and the perfect expression and anatomy display the
highest art.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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