Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-06-26
THE THAMES EMBANKMENT.
Wonderful Work of Engineering, the
History of Which Is Forgotten.

History of Which Is Forgotten.
AS the seat of an extensive commerce
and internal trade, Roman London was as
eminent in antiquity as it is today. Its
monuments, the memorials of its great
ness, prove its prominence. One of these,
if it is Roman work, which is uncertain,
is the embankment of the river Thames.
This immense work is quite unequaled by
any of the labors of the modern English
engineers For thirty=seven miles along
the course of the stream lofty mounds
confine the river within fixed bounds and
offer a secure path to the navigator. On
each side the country spreads out far be-
low the embankment, and more than once
the waters have broken through, over
spread the lowlands and left desolation
around them. The English had neglected
to repair and strengthen the banks Of the
river, and were indebted to the skill of a
Dutch engineer for the restoration of the
Roman work. "The Thames from Rich
mond,n says Mr. Smiles, sis an artificial
river
How many years of ceaseless toll, of
acute engineering skill and vast expense
We're employed on this unequaled work no
history relates, no record even suggests.
Some authorities attribute the embank-
ment to the Belgic traders, before the Ro-
man invasion; others even to the monks
of the Middle Ages. But there is good
reason to suppose that the true authors of
the chief Improvements on the Thames
were the Romans. Similar works on al
most an equal scale exist in other parts of
| England, and we have the complaint of
| the subject Britons that they were wore
out and consumed in clearing the woods
and embanking the fens; not that the
| hapless natives were ever treated by their
Roman taskmasters as harshly as were the
savages of Hayti and Cuba by the Spanish
discoveries But they have outlived their
conqureror.
Before these entertainments were made
the country below London was an i'm
mense fen, or marsh, over which the tide
! flowed necessarily. The town could have
been only a collection of rude houses seated
on the rising ground above the river. 1t
! was already a seat of considerable trade
even before the Roman conquest. But the
genius and skill of the Roman engineers,
if the Romans built the embankment, gave
it those unequaled facilities for traffic that
have secured its commercial supremacy in
every age. By the embankment the
Thames was confined within bounds; many
acres of land were added to the agricul-
tural domain, while along the fine high
way of the river ceaseless procession of
vessels of every size and form moved up
and down. They came, as Strabo tells us,
from the mouths Of the Loire and the
Garonne, the Seine and the Rhine.
Some were war ships, moved usually by
oars, and distinguished by their sharp
beaks of iron, and their crews armed with
spears and shields; some were huge mer-
chant vessels, propelled by oars and sail,
laden with rich cargoes of eastern manu-
features, with the wines of Italy and the
artistic wares of Greece. Some sailing down
| the river from the docks of London would
carry the tin, lead, furs and the corn and
cattle of the west to the ports of Gaul and
Spain.
Julian found in Britain the necessary
supplies for his perishing soldiers in Ger
many, and the immense stores he drew from
it when famine prevailed on the continent
show the general cultivation and prosperity
of the island. His 600 corn ships were
hastily built in the forest of Ardennes,
and possibly landed only on the southern
shore. Ii we allow them burden of 100
tons each, they would equal the capacity
of at least six Umbrias or Etrurias, and
the very names of our modern argosies re-
call the Italian teachers of our ancestors.
Eugene Lawrence in Harper's.