ANCIENT ENGINEERING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1631, 9 August 1887, Page 3

ANCIENT ENGINEERING.

When a modern Londoner (says the "Leisure Hour") looks with pride on the magnificent embankment of the Thames above Blackfrlars Bridge he too often forgets that a far more gigantic as well as useful work was executed In ancient times. Few uf the multitudes who enter the river think that the great stream is, m fact, an artificial car a', m many places r&ised above the ad j icent ccuutry, which would be inun'ated but for the banks made by human hnnds. Of the execution of this grand work, stretoh ing from the Nore to Richmond no record exists, and it is only cocjeotnred that it was done, or at least directed, by the Romans, when Londlnium first beoamo the capital of the provinoo. In 1707 a huue bro»oh m the embankment was caado by a violent tide at Dager.hatn, m Essex. A thousand acres of rich lt n d were destroyed, and about a hundred and twenty acres washed into the bed of tho river. It was only after enormous labor, directed by Captain Perry, who had conducted similar operations m Russia, that the bank was restored. Bub for. this etnbank'ns; of the river many districts, including Thorney Island and Westminster, would never have been habitable.