THE BOOK OF THE EOYAL 



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At the top of the steps, on the landing-iolace, or dais, 

 leading to the galleries, an ornamental tesselated pavement has 

 been laid down by Messrs. Minton, Hollins, & Co. The work 

 is a combination, or rather is the modern imitation of two 

 kinds of mosaic art — one known as Alexandrine work (opus 

 Alexandrinmii), and the other as tesselated work {opus tesselatum). 

 The latter was perhaps the earliest of any known mosaic, and 

 consisted of small cubes of marble sawn or worked by hand 

 into such simple geometrical forms, as when combined, would 

 form a figvu'e equally geometrical, but of course characterised by 

 greater intricacy. Many very fine specimens of opus tesselatum 

 have been found in this country. The other, or opus Alewan- 

 drinum, was a kind of mosaic introduced after the time of 

 Constantine, and was used as a pavement in all the rich Italian 

 churches for nearly a thousand years. It was constructed by 

 chasing channels in wliite marble slabs, and filling them in with 

 dark reddish-purple poiphyiy, or green serpentine. There is a 

 very interesting specimen of this in Westminster Abbey referred 

 to the year 1260 ; and one, probably still earlier and more purely 

 Itahan in style, in Canterbury Cathedral. 



Various attempts have been made to imitate these tesselated 

 pavements, by inlaying stone with coloured cements, and by 

 combining different coloured cements ; but it was not until about 

 thuty years ago that the plan was hit upon which has since been 

 carried out with so much success. It is to the late Mr. Hemy 

 T. Hope, of the Deepdene, formerly one of the Council of the 

 Society, that Mr. Digby Wyatt, in a paper on the subject read 

 to the Society of Arts in 1847, accords the chief honour of 

 having given the impulse which has led to such beautiful 



