2-889-313 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Monumental Slabs at the Eastern Terminus - Great Wall of China, 1850. 'The first objects that arrested our attention on the platform were three monumental slabs of black marble - two standing close to the wall, the third removed from its base: a curiously-carved altar-shaped pedestal lay extended on the ground. On one of the standing slabs is deeply inscribed the sentence, "Heaven created Earth and Sea"; and on the other, "Only a Spoonful". The import of this latter sentence we were at a loss to conjecture: it may have had reference to the placid waters of the Gulf of Leotong; or, perhaps, is intended as an allusion to the nothingness of this vast structure when compared with the works of Creation.' From "Illustrated London News", 1850.