DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3990#0044
( 43
the bases of the columns wore found to be in a very bad condition ; the bottom drum of the shaft and the base had usually crumbled away to
a great extent, while the least touch brought down handfuls of soft white sand, which was what the original sandstone had weathered into.
An inferior quality of stone had been used in the first instance, a fine grained white sandstone, easy to work, but with very little cementing
material to bind the grains together, so that the action of the organic acids, etc., which must have drained into the stone from the mud houses
which filled this colonnade rapidly reduced a building stone to an incoherent sand. As the columns could not be left in this staff1, these
weathered portions were gradually cut out and replaced by solid blocks of good sandstone set in Portland cement and worked to the shape of
the original columns, while any good portions of the old work which remained were left in their places. Photographs Nos. \V2 to 35 show this.
The bottom courses of the back wall were built of the same stone, and this, too, was repaired in the same way (Part VI!.). This colonnade! was
never completed, only the six columns at the north end having had the capitals carved, while the remainder are blocked out, as was done in
the quarry before they were built up in position, after which the carving was taken in hand. Commencing from the south end, the architrave
resting on column No. 10 is cracked (Photograph No. 33), as also are those between columns 14 and Lo, am
■) and
ID, which would
the
better for some support. Columns Nos. 1, 14, 15, 16, and 17 arc interesting, as showing the means employed to straighten columns which got out of
the vertical. A piece was cut out of the column on the side towards which it was leaning, ami another piece on the opposite side, so that the
column was supported by the piece of stone in the centre ; blocks were then inserted of such a thickness that when the column settled on to them
it would be vertical, that is to say, the block on the side to which the column was leaning was thicker than the other. Wedges of iron were put in
apparently to act as distance pieces, so as to adjust the columns accurately.
15
14
•
*
\
o
t
if
/
\
f --------•—
* ___J__
t
to
<*
Note.— Columns Nos. 1 and li
Scale jtj.
are drawn from the
west side, the others from the north side.
the bases of the columns wore found to be in a very bad condition ; the bottom drum of the shaft and the base had usually crumbled away to
a great extent, while the least touch brought down handfuls of soft white sand, which was what the original sandstone had weathered into.
An inferior quality of stone had been used in the first instance, a fine grained white sandstone, easy to work, but with very little cementing
material to bind the grains together, so that the action of the organic acids, etc., which must have drained into the stone from the mud houses
which filled this colonnade rapidly reduced a building stone to an incoherent sand. As the columns could not be left in this staff1, these
weathered portions were gradually cut out and replaced by solid blocks of good sandstone set in Portland cement and worked to the shape of
the original columns, while any good portions of the old work which remained were left in their places. Photographs Nos. \V2 to 35 show this.
The bottom courses of the back wall were built of the same stone, and this, too, was repaired in the same way (Part VI!.). This colonnade! was
never completed, only the six columns at the north end having had the capitals carved, while the remainder are blocked out, as was done in
the quarry before they were built up in position, after which the carving was taken in hand. Commencing from the south end, the architrave
resting on column No. 10 is cracked (Photograph No. 33), as also are those between columns 14 and Lo, am
■) and
ID, which would
the
better for some support. Columns Nos. 1, 14, 15, 16, and 17 arc interesting, as showing the means employed to straighten columns which got out of
the vertical. A piece was cut out of the column on the side towards which it was leaning, ami another piece on the opposite side, so that the
column was supported by the piece of stone in the centre ; blocks were then inserted of such a thickness that when the column settled on to them
it would be vertical, that is to say, the block on the side to which the column was leaning was thicker than the other. Wedges of iron were put in
apparently to act as distance pieces, so as to adjust the columns accurately.
15
14
•
*
\
o
t
if
/
\
f --------•—
* ___J__
t
to
<*
Note.— Columns Nos. 1 and li
Scale jtj.
are drawn from the
west side, the others from the north side.