Breaking of FLINTS. The art of cutting, or rather breaking, flint-stones into uniform figures, is by some supposed to be one of the arts now lost. That it was known formerly, appears from the ancient Bridewell at Norwich, from the gate of the Augustin friars at Canterbury, that of St John's Abbey at Colchester, and the gate near Whitehall Westminster. But that the art is not lost, and that the French know it, appears from the platform on the top of the royal observatory at Paris; which, instead of being leaded, is paved with flint cut or broke into regular figures. But we know not that this art hath been any where described.
Breaking of FLINTS
sub_entry · 632 chars · lineage ↗ · page image at NLS ↗