COINS OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AND THE EMPIRE.
One of the most perfect and most interesting of Roman remains is the archway at Lincoln, called Newport Gate, and styled by Dr. Stukely "the noblest remnant of this sort in Britain." It was the north gate of the Roman city of Lindum, and from it a military way, called the High Street, leading to Winteringham, on the Humber, may now be traced. This still forms the principal entrance into the city from the north. It is supposed to have had a large central arch, and two smaller ones at the sides, that on the west having been destroyed, the larger being about fifteen feet, and the lesser ones seven feet in width. It is built of squared stone, out as far as the top of the arch, of remarkably large size. It is without ornament of any kind, but is said by Rickman to have had architrave and impost mouldings. That of the architrave, if it ever existed, has entirely disappeared; but there is, or was lately, a small portion of the impost moulding remaining, on the west side of the large arch. The masonry, which exhibits none of the usual binds of tiles so frequent in other buildings, will be best understood by reference to the engraving on page 21.
There is another piece of Roman work in the neighbourhood of Newport Gate, which is a piece of wall built with ashlar and binding courses of tile. It is known as the Mint Wall.
But perhaps the most interesting of all the Roman remains in Britain is the Roman Wall, which reaches across the narrow part of the island in Northumberland and Cumberland, commencing at Wallsend, on the Tyne, running through Newcastle and Carlisle, and terminating at Bowness, in Cumberland. A most interesting and fully illustrated account of this wall has been given to the world by the Rev. J. Collingwood Bruce, from whose work we have (by permission) copied the two illustrations on p. 22.
NEWPORT GATE, LINCOLN. (From a Photograph by Skill, Lincoln.)