Sir Christopher Wren: His Family and His Times: With Original Letters and a Discourse on Architecture Hitherto Unpublished. 1585-1723.Phillimore, Lucy
History
Sir Christopher Wren: His Family and His Times: With Original Letters and a Discourse on Architecture Hitherto Unpublished. 1585-1723.
Phillimore, Lucy
Great Britain -- History -- Stuarts, 1603-1714 -- Biography; Wren family; Wren, Christopher, Sir, 1632-1723
Solomon had an Army of Labourers in his Works; now suppose 12 Cubits
long and 2 broad, and 1 thick, this would amount to 648 of our solid
feet, which in marble would be 64 Tuns and more. Eight men can draw a
Tun, but the ground being hilly, we will allow 10 men to a Tun which
would be 640 men. Now how all these men can be brought to draw together
I show as follows. First, 10 men draw in a Rope (as bargemen with us) at
the end of this Rope is a Spring-tree (as our Coachmen use for ye two
fore Horses) to each end of which is a rope so 20 men can draw in the
second rank; each rope hath again its Spring-tree, and so on to a sixth
rank each rank doubling the number and supposing 10 men to govern the
rest (possibly with Musick) makes the number 640 men; and this will be
found readier than capsterns, and by this means much vaster stones may
be mov'd and even by Barbarous People without Engins. I cannot otherwise
see what need Solomon had of such great multitudes of Labourers as
_Threescore and ten Thousand Bearers of Burdens_, and _Fourscore
Thousand Hewers of stone in the Mountains_, &c. Probably too they were
employ'd by Months, and the rest were by turns to till the ground and
bring food for the Labourers that the Country Work might proceed.
The Walls of Babylon were most stupendious Works, built with Brick and
Cement with Bitumen; the Height of them, according to Herodotus, was Two
Hundred Royal Cubits, and the Breadth Fifty; which in our measure
(reckoning every Royal Cubit with Herodotus 1 foot 9 inches which is 3
inches above the common cubit measure) makes the Height 375 foot and the
Breadth 93 ft. 9 in.
In these Walls were one hundred gates of Brass with Ornaments in
Architecture of the same metal. Besides the first Wall, (which was
encompassed with a wide and deep Foss always supply'd with water the
sides of which were Lin'd with Brick) was an inner Wall built of near
the same strength, thô not altogether of the same Breadth.
The extent of the City must add to the Surprise which being a Square
contained a Front on every Side of one hundred and Twenty Stadia, that
is Fifteen of our miles, and makes up in the whole Threescore miles.
Another stupendious Fabrick of I think also Tyrian architecture, was the
monument of Porsenna, King of Etruria. This Sepulchre we have describ'd
by Pliny, with the particular Dimensions in Feet which I have
accordingly Delineated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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