DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13856#0040
32
Roman Antiquities recently discovered on the site of the
doubt from the circumstance of the Mansion House having to be erected upon
wooden planks and piles,* that this particular portion of the eastern bank of the
brook abounded in springs and was of a wet and boggy character. The vast
quantities of wooden piling which has been removed from a depth in some places
of upwards of thirty feet has indicated the direction of this bank, and at the
same time forcibly illustrated the unstable character of the soil.
Stukeley considered the Mansion House to have been built upon a ditch, and
evidently based his opinion upon the nature of the ground. This particular
portion of the brook must have been an important situation in Roman days, and
it is probable that the stream was here of some considerable width, increased,
may be, by tributaries, which, flowing from the opposite portion of the city, found
an exit on the western bank. It formed as we have said a natural boundary to
the first city, and this opinion now receives important corroboration from the
results of the late excavations. The discovery of a limitary monument has been
already briefly referred to. The finding of this was as unexpected as it is
interesting, and the facts which are to be derived from its consideration afford,
valuable testimony to conclusions, which, in the absence of actual illustration,
have hitherto been based upon the comparison of certain passages which exist in
obscure but authentic writers of antiquity.
At the north-east corner of the works, and parallel with Charlotte Row, there
was discovered at a depth of about thirty feet from the surface-level a wooden
framework, three feet square: it- was of oak, and as it lay in situ had the
appearance of a wooden box or tank. The four sides were of uniform width,
viz., eight inches, and the timber of which they were formed one and a-half inch
thick. It was beneath much of the old wooden piling which at this spot appeared
in profusion, and marks the very uncertain width of the old watercourse, also
below the made earth and debris of Roman times, and it had clearly been
placed upon the natural soil as a lasting memorial, and with some special
intention as to its significance.
"Upon examination of the clay within the frame, for the purpose of ascertaining
if there was any bottom to the structure, we observed that the soil had been
" puddled " in, and differed from the undisturbed clay outside. This we con-
sidered to indicate something below, and therefore bestowed especial care on the
* March -21, 1738. A sub-committee had viewed the ground, and reported that " there will be a
necessity for piling and planking the greatest part thereof, to lay the foundations upon." Jour. 58, fo. 1256.
This work was so considerable as to cause "a combination amongst workmen to raise the price of piling
and planking." Jour, lviii. fo. 133. See ArchtEologia, sxxiii. p. 110.
Roman Antiquities recently discovered on the site of the
doubt from the circumstance of the Mansion House having to be erected upon
wooden planks and piles,* that this particular portion of the eastern bank of the
brook abounded in springs and was of a wet and boggy character. The vast
quantities of wooden piling which has been removed from a depth in some places
of upwards of thirty feet has indicated the direction of this bank, and at the
same time forcibly illustrated the unstable character of the soil.
Stukeley considered the Mansion House to have been built upon a ditch, and
evidently based his opinion upon the nature of the ground. This particular
portion of the brook must have been an important situation in Roman days, and
it is probable that the stream was here of some considerable width, increased,
may be, by tributaries, which, flowing from the opposite portion of the city, found
an exit on the western bank. It formed as we have said a natural boundary to
the first city, and this opinion now receives important corroboration from the
results of the late excavations. The discovery of a limitary monument has been
already briefly referred to. The finding of this was as unexpected as it is
interesting, and the facts which are to be derived from its consideration afford,
valuable testimony to conclusions, which, in the absence of actual illustration,
have hitherto been based upon the comparison of certain passages which exist in
obscure but authentic writers of antiquity.
At the north-east corner of the works, and parallel with Charlotte Row, there
was discovered at a depth of about thirty feet from the surface-level a wooden
framework, three feet square: it- was of oak, and as it lay in situ had the
appearance of a wooden box or tank. The four sides were of uniform width,
viz., eight inches, and the timber of which they were formed one and a-half inch
thick. It was beneath much of the old wooden piling which at this spot appeared
in profusion, and marks the very uncertain width of the old watercourse, also
below the made earth and debris of Roman times, and it had clearly been
placed upon the natural soil as a lasting memorial, and with some special
intention as to its significance.
"Upon examination of the clay within the frame, for the purpose of ascertaining
if there was any bottom to the structure, we observed that the soil had been
" puddled " in, and differed from the undisturbed clay outside. This we con-
sidered to indicate something below, and therefore bestowed especial care on the
* March -21, 1738. A sub-committee had viewed the ground, and reported that " there will be a
necessity for piling and planking the greatest part thereof, to lay the foundations upon." Jour. 58, fo. 1256.
This work was so considerable as to cause "a combination amongst workmen to raise the price of piling
and planking." Jour, lviii. fo. 133. See ArchtEologia, sxxiii. p. 110.