eleven inches long, five broad, and two and a half thick, but not a single Roman tile; neither was the mortar of that strength and durability as that before mentioned. Another line of wall erected upon the last, and composed of statuteable bricks, having battlements coped with stone, rose to the height of eight feet more. * Discoveries of Roman London and its environs, made on the north side of the Thames. The earliest discovery of any remains of the Romans on the north side of the Thames appears to have been about 1576. Stow mentions it in the following manner : "On the east side of this church-yard (St. Mary Spital), lieth a large field, of old time called Lolesworth, but now Spittle-fielde, which, about the year 1576, was broken up for clay to make brick; in the digging whereof, many earthen pots, called urns, were found full of ashes, and of burnt bones of men, to wit, of the Romans that inhabited here: for it was the custom of the Romans to burn their dead, to put their ashes into an urn, and then to bury the same, with certain ceremonies, in some field appointed for the purpose, near unto their city. Every of these pots had in them with the ashes of the dead, one piece of copper money, with the inscription of the emperor then reigning. Some of them were of Claudius, some of Vespasian, some of Nero, of Antoninus Pius, of Trajan, and others. Besides those urns, many other pots were there found, made of a white earth,† with long necks and handles, like to our stone jugs; these were empty, but seemed to have been buried full of some liquid, long since consumed and soaked through, for there were found divers vials (lachrymatories), and other fashioned glasses, some most cunningly wrought, such as I have not seen the like, and some of chrystall, all which had water in them; nothing differing in clearness, taste, or savour, from common spring water. Some of these glasses had oil in them very thick, and earthy in savour; some were supposed to have had balm in them, but had lost the virtue. There were also found divers dishes [patera], and cups of a fine red coloured earth, which showed outwardly such a shining smoothness, as if they had been of coral; those had in the bottom Roman letters printed. There were also lamps of white earth, artificially wrought with divers antiques about them; some three or four images [penates] made of white earth, about a span long, each of them; one was of Pallas, the rest I have • Vide Letter from D Woodward to Sir Christopher Wren. + Sir Christopher Wren presented to the Royal Society a curious Roman urn, or ossuary, of glass, which was sufficiently large to contain a gallon and a half, and was encompassed by fine parallel circles. It had a handle and a very short neck, with a wide mouth, of a white metal. This vesse. was found in Spitalfields, and was pre bably one of those mentioned above forgotten. I myself have reserved, amongst divers of those antiquities there found, one pot of white earth, very small, not exceeding the quantity of a quarter of a wine pint, made in shape of a hare squatted upon her legs, and between her ears is the mouth of the spot.* * Sir Robert Cotton also discovered a Roman cemetery in 1615, in what is now called Sun Tavern Fields, at Shadwell, where, formerly, gravel was dug for ballasting ships. Here were found divers urns; a coin of Pupienus, who associated with Balbinus against Maximus, and was slain with him in a sedition of their own soldiers about the year 237; and two coffins, " one whereof being of stone, contained the bones of a man; and the other of lead, beautifully embellished with escallop shells, and a crotister border, contained those of a woman; at whose head and feet were placed two urns of the height of three feet each; and at the sides, divers beautiful red earthen bottles, with a number of lachrymatories of hexagon and octagon forms; and on each side of the inhumed bones were deposited two ivory sceptres, of the length of eighteen inches each; and upon the breast, the figure of a small Cupid, curiously wrought, as were likewise two pieces of jet, resembling nails, of the length of three inches.”† In the account of the ancient state of London, given in the 'Parentalia,' from the papers of Sir Christopher Wren, who had the best opportunities of acquiring information on that head, through the facilities afforded by the Great Fire, in 1666, it is affirmed, that the north boundary of the Roman colony, or city, ran along a causeway (now Cheapside), skirted by a great fen or morass; that it extended in breadth from the same causeway to the river Thames, and in length from Tower Hill to Ludgate; that the Prætorian Camp was situated on the west side; and that the Prætorian Way and principal middle street, was the present Watling Street. The causeway was discovered at the depth of eighteen feet, in digging the foundations for the tower of the present church of St. Mary-le-Bow, in Cheapside: its thickness was four feet; the upper part was of rough stone, close, and well rammed; and the bottom of Roman brick and rubbish, all firmly cemented. In the vallum of the presumed Camp, near Ludgate, was dug up, in 1669, a sepulchral stone, with an inscription, and the figure of a Roman soldier, which is now preserved among the Arundellian Marbles at Oxford: Stow's London, p. 130-133.— Some bodies interred in the same cemetery had been buried in timber coffins, with thick plank lids, fastened down by large iron nails a quarter of yard long-Ibid. ✦ Malcolm, Vol. IV. p. 566; from "a New and Complete Survey of London," 1742. Parentalia, p. 265. To be read thus:-" Vivio Mar ciano militi legionis secundæ Augusta Januaria Matrina conjunx pientissima posuit memoriam. This stone, which is much mutilated, has been several times engraved, yet never with sufficient accuracy. The sculptured figure, according to Pennant, represents the deceased Vivius Marcianus, "as a British soldier, probably of the Cohors Britonum, dressed and armed after the manner of the country, with long hair, a short lowe. garment fastened round the waist by a girdle and fibula, a long Sagum, or plaid, flung over his breast and one arm, ready to be cast off in time of action, naked legs, and in his right hand a sword of vast length, like the claymore of the later Highlanders."* This engraving is from an original drawing by J. Carter, F.S.A. In digging the foundations for the present Cathedral of Saint Paul's, on the north and north-east sides, Sir Christopher Wren discovered the remains of an ancient cemetery, which he describes as follows:-" Under the graves of the latter ages, in a row below them, were the burial places of the Saxon' times. The Saxons. as it appeared, were accustomed to line their graves with chalk. Pennant's London, p. 10 stones; though some, more eminent, were entombed in coffins o whole stones. Below these were British graves, where were found ivory and wooden pins of a hard wood, seemingly box, in abundance, of about six inches long. It seems the bodies were only wrapped up, and pinned in woollen shrouds; which, bein consumed, the pins remained entire. In the same row, and deeper, were Roman urns intermixed. This was eighteen feet deep or more, and belonged to the colony when the Romans and Britons lived and died together. The more remarkable Roman urns, lamps, lachrymatories, fragments of sacrificing vessels, &c. were found deep in the ground, towards the north-east corner, near Cheapside: these were generally well wrought, and embossed with various figures and devices. Among those preserved, were a fragment of a vessel in the shape of a basin, whereon Charon is represented with his oar in his hand, receiving a naked ghost; a patera sacrificalis, with the inscription PATER. CLO.; a remarkable small urn, of a fine hard earth, and leaden colour, containing about half a pint; many pieces of urns, with the names of the potters embossed on the bottoms; a sepulchral earthen lamp, figured with two branches of palms, supposed Christian; and two lachrymatories of glass."* Many of the above remains were found about a pit excavated by the Roman potters, in a stratum of close and hard pot earth, which extends beneath the whole site of St. Paul's, varying in thickness from four to six feet. This pit was directly under the north-east angle of the present choir; and here the urns, broken vessels, and pottery-ware were found in great abundance. Not any of the discoveries, however, made by Sir Christopher, could induce him to adopt the popular opinion of there having been a Roman temple of Diana on the site now occupied by the Cathe dial. His own words, speaking of the temple of Apollo, asserted traditionally to have stood on the site of the Abbey Church, at Westminster, and to have been ruined by an earthquake in the time of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, are these:-"Earthquakes break not stones to pieces; nor would the Picts be at that pains: but I imagine that the monks, finding the Londoners pretending to a Temple of Diana where now St. Paul's stands, (horns of stags, and tusks of boars, having been dug up there in former times, and it is said also in later years,) would not be behindhand in antiquity. But I must assert, that, having changed all the foundations of old St. Paul's, and upon that occasion rummaged all the ground thereabouts, and being very desirous to find some footsteps of such a temple, I could not discover any; and therefore can give no more credit to Diana than to Apollo." Dr. Woodward, on the contrary, was fully impressed with the Parentalia, p. 266-7 lbid p. 296 Ibid, p. 285. belief of Diana having a temple upon this spot; and he inform us, that in his collection were the tusks of boars, the horns of oxen and stags, and sacrificing vessels with representations of deer, and even Diana herself, upon them; all of which were dug up at St. Paul's Church.* He also mentions a small brass figure of Diana, two inches and a half in height, which was found in digging between the Deanery and Blackfriars, and which "the best judges of different nations admitted to have all the characters of Roman work."† Among the other discoveries of Roman antiquities made in rebuilding the city after the Fire of London, were numerous coins of different emperors, utensils of various kinds, figures of household gods, and foundations and remains of buildings. The most remarkable of the latter were met with under Bow Church, Cheapside, and appeared to be the walls, with the windows also, and the pavement, of a Temple or Church of Roman workmanship, entirely buried under the level of the present street."I The next discoveries, in point of time, appear to have bee made in 1670; when, in cleaning out Fleet-ditch, at the depth of fifteen feet, was discovered, between the Fleet Prison and Holborn Bridge, many Roman utensils; and still lower, a great quantity of Roman coins in silver, brass, copper, and other metals. The silver coins were of different sizes, from that of a silver two-pence to a crown-piece, all of the Roman period, and a great quantity of the same kind of the Saxon and Norman people. At Holborn Bridge, two brazen lares, or household gods, were found; and opposite St. Andrew's Church, Holborn, a tesselated pavement; of the size or pattern of which, no account has hitherto been given. A very curious and interesting description of Roman London is given in a letter to Hearne, the antiquary, in 1714, from Mr. Bagford, a gentleman who had made the research into the antiquities of this city his peculiar study. In this work is an account of a curious brick discovered in Mark Lane, in 1674. He says, "And now I shall take notice of a very great curiosity found in Mark Lane, more properly called Mart Lane, it being a place where the Romans, and, not improbably, the ancient Britons, used to barter their commodities, as tin, lead, &c. with other nations, it may be with the Greeks, who often came into this island to purchase the like goods. Whence I am apt to conjecture that the name of the lane hath been continued ever since the time of the Romans, and that the names of some other lanes and streets, as Cornhill, ⚫ Parentalia, p. 303. * For a full description of this figure, and a Dissertation on it, see Malcolm's Lond. Red. Vol. III. p. 509 -12. printed from an unfinished ma nuscript by Dr. Woodward, now in the possession of Alexander Chalmers, Esq. F.S.A. Parentalia, p. 235. |