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HISTORY OF ENGINEERING.

Book I.

lelogram, rounded at the angles, and its gates terminated the principal streets, whichcrossed at right angles: AVcst Gate, which was the entrance from llumsey, remains nearlyperfect. A ditch, or rather running water, protects the walls on the outside.

At Southampton portions of the walls are said to he Roman, Saxon, and Norman, and itis extremely difficult to discriminate between the works of the several people. The en-closures of a town were usually set out of a sufficient thickness to allow of a walk at thetop, which was guarded externally by an embattled parapet. The wall was constructed ofthe material the country atForded, either stone quarried in the neighbourhood, or flintspicked from the surface of the land. Bricks and tiles are occasionally found in the archesto the drains or other openings, and sometimes forming a course through the entire thick-ness ; these walls, like those of the churches and castles of the same epoch, were con-structed between cases of timber framework, in a similar manner to the pise walls; andthere is sufficient evidence that after the facing was laid on both sides, the filling in orstuffing was made with every variety of material that could be collected, sometimesimbedded in mortar, at others run with liquid grouting, in either case making a hardconcrete, capable of enduring for centuries.

Rochester , situated on the Watling Street, was fortified by the Romans, and much of thewalls constructed by King Ethelbert remain: they were built in the direction of the fourcardinal points, and extend from east to west about half a mile, but from north to southnot more than a quarter; they are 4 feet in thickness, and on the east side the height was30 feet. Edward I. , in the year 1290, gave permission to the monks of the convent “topull down part of the south wall, and to fill up the ditch without the wall, on conditionthat they built a new stone wall, 5 rod and 5 feet from the former, 16 feet high and wellembattled, to stand on their own ground, and to be repaired by them.” There were severalgates, all of which arc destroyed.

It is not possible to enumerate all our city and town walls; they varied in height andthickness according to their locality or importance. Their general character was Roman,and their gates and approaches were defended in the same manner as those of the castles ofthe wealthier and more powerful barons. What a different spectacle to the traveller mustEngland have then presented ! Walled and fortified towns, resembling many on the con-tinent; castles defying admission; religious establishments and colleges within enclosures,resembling fortresses.

The gates of cities and towns throughout Europe during the middle ages bore a strongresemblance to each other. Those at Constantinople , perhaps, served as the prototype ofmany. The walls of this city extend, on the western side 3 miles, and are fortified by100 towers. The battlements, machicolations, and entrance gates, are of the same characteras those of the castles and walls constructed in England by Edward I. 'That sovereign ,when engaged in the holy wars, as they were falsely termed, had the opportunity ofobserving the arrangement of the castles in Asia , and the fortifications of the cities, whichwere surrounded with lofty embattled walls, strengthened by towers of various forms, outof which projected machicolations, galleries, and various other contrivances, both fordefence and ornament.

Caernarvon Castle, both a garrison and a palace, has a beautiful entrance, built byEdward I. after his return from the Crusades . It is an hundred feet in height; the gatewayhas a succession of sharply pointed ribbed arches; there are grooves for three portcullises,above which are circular holes for the discharge of missiles, or for pouring down moltenlead.

'Hie Eagle tower has three angular turrets; that appropriated to Queen Eleanor ispolygonal, and contains four stories.

There can be no doubt that for the style of our castles we are indebted to the inhabitantsof Asia; many towns in India are still surrounded by lofty stone walls, embattled, maehi-colated, defended by round towers, and with gateways and barbicans in every particularresembling our own.

The Castles of England afford study for the engineer of the most instructive kind ; inthem all the arts and science of the age are exhibited, and as their plans and forms areadapted to peculiar situations, they do not resemble each other : hitherto they have beenregarded solely as contributing to the picturesque character of the country, and as afford-ing subjects to the artist and the historian ; they have not been sufficiently studied bythe engineer with regard to their construction, nor have they been accurately measuredfor the purpose of examining their merits as places of defence. A perfect collection ofEnglish castles has never been made, which, as they crumble away or are removed tomake room for modern changes, will hereafter be regretted. Hertmonceaux, Bodiam,and some others, have been very accurately described, which only tends to awaken feelingsof regret that more have not had the same attention bestowed upon them. The- square,the circular, the polygonal keeps, which occupy a portion of the area within the outerwalls, are generally fine examples of the contrivances of our ancestors; in them wereapartments of noble dimensions, well secured and defended from outward attack. Warwick