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Article ANCIENT MASONS' MARKS. ← Page 9 of 9
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ancient Masons' Marks.
dern pointed archway in a battlemented wall , connecting the two ramparts , opens on our sight . That archway leads to the house and gardens of La Maison . That tiny aqueduct conveys its liquid store to refresh and invigorate the denizens of both . How pleasant is the dark green foliage which mantles these massive walls ; how clear the
water in those stone basins . From the present to the past how short the interval ! two centuries have not elapsed since those blocks were raised from the quarry , and skilfully cut to form that skewed arch , and we look on them now for the chiselled impress of the craftsman ; but another and a mightier hand , the hand of Him who in that time which
our finite minds cannot fathom , " in the beginning created the heavens and the earth , " has marked on them in characters not to be mistaken the existence of an organic world thousands of ages , when that substance which is used almost as a synonynie for hard , and which we work with steel , was unstable as the sand of the desert . Suppose then the liht
g to be favourable , we may see on the inner wall , distant five paces , several marks . At one place only can we approach closely ; we do so , and we distinctly trace out , with finger and eye together , several marks : on retiring a short distance , we are able to observe the same marks repeated on the stones to the height of thirty or forty feet from the
ground . We have observed the following , many others are probably concealed by the evergreen and lichens which now cover these massive walls : — + ik W X *
Part of an arch of the Aqueduct between Civita Vecchia , and Valetta .
From Fort Tigne . PI
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ancient Masons' Marks.
dern pointed archway in a battlemented wall , connecting the two ramparts , opens on our sight . That archway leads to the house and gardens of La Maison . That tiny aqueduct conveys its liquid store to refresh and invigorate the denizens of both . How pleasant is the dark green foliage which mantles these massive walls ; how clear the
water in those stone basins . From the present to the past how short the interval ! two centuries have not elapsed since those blocks were raised from the quarry , and skilfully cut to form that skewed arch , and we look on them now for the chiselled impress of the craftsman ; but another and a mightier hand , the hand of Him who in that time which
our finite minds cannot fathom , " in the beginning created the heavens and the earth , " has marked on them in characters not to be mistaken the existence of an organic world thousands of ages , when that substance which is used almost as a synonynie for hard , and which we work with steel , was unstable as the sand of the desert . Suppose then the liht
g to be favourable , we may see on the inner wall , distant five paces , several marks . At one place only can we approach closely ; we do so , and we distinctly trace out , with finger and eye together , several marks : on retiring a short distance , we are able to observe the same marks repeated on the stones to the height of thirty or forty feet from the
ground . We have observed the following , many others are probably concealed by the evergreen and lichens which now cover these massive walls : — + ik W X *
Part of an arch of the Aqueduct between Civita Vecchia , and Valetta .
From Fort Tigne . PI