It has been drained, and we have learned, that in the course of 1824, a labourer, who was occupied in digging in it, turned up a number of arrow heads, which he sold. Shortly afterwards, a labourer, whilst digging a few yards to the south of the prætorium, for materials to mend a road, uncovered a pavement of red tiles. It was little more than a foot beneath the surface of the soil, and was about sixteen feet square. The tiles were about two fingers thick, and about six inches square. They were mostly figured; but as neither taste nor curiosity prompted the proprietor to preserve any of the fragments, they were all consigned, as rubbish, to the bottom of a deep road. This pavement was, in all probability, Roman. From this circumstance, and from fragments of stone ware which it is reported have been found here, little doubt need be entertained, on the whole, that this was a Roman station.

The passages we have quoted from Tacitus claim our attention, not alone from their general interest, but from their conveying, with the first recorded notice of the town which was to become the future metropolis, an outline of the advances made towards civilization by the Roman settlers in its neighbourhood, and from the additional evidence they give as to its probable origin and arly condition.

CHAPTER II.

Historical account of Roman London, with notices of remains discovered, &c.

THE great consequence which London had acquired at this early period, may be deduced from the celebrated Itinerary of Antoninus, from which it appears, that no fewer than seven of the fifteen iters commence or terminate here. The commerce of this port was also so extended, that as early as 339, eight hundred vessels were employed in the exportation of corn alone. Of the roads formed to and from the metropolis by the Romans, little can be gleaned; time has long since obliterated every vestige. The Roman stations in Middlesex appear to have been confined to Londinium or Augusta (London), Sulloniacim (Brockley Hills, near Elstree), and Ad Pontes (Staines). The principal roads concentrated in London, from which city they branched off as from a centre. The Watling street, a British trackway, improved by the Romans, had its southern termination at Dover; its course through Kent was over Blackheath, along the present Kent-road, by St. Thomas a Watering, to the east side of Kent

Street, and thence to Bellings-gate, on the north side of the Thames, and along the present Watling-street to Aldersgate, where it quitted the city; along Goswell Street to the west of Islington, through Hagbush Lane, now in part destroyed, to Verulamium (St. Albans.) Another branch of the Watling Street diverged in a north-westerly direction from St. Thomas a Watering, passing to the north of Newington Church, over St. George's Fields, to Stane Gate, adjoining Westminster Bridge, and thence to the Edgeware Road, skirting Paddington, and along the high road to St. Albans. The Ermin Street led northwards; its course was from Noviomagus, (Woodstock, in Surrey), pretty near in the present road to London, by Streatham, Newington, and Southwark, by Stoney Street to the point now called Dowgate; thence by London Stone to Bishopsgate, where it left the city; and pursuing the course of the present road, northwards, went to Ad Fines (Braughing). Another road was through Newgate, by Holborn and Oxford Street, to Ad Pontes (Staines). From this road, at or about the end of Oxford Street, diverged a road in a north easterly direction, by Portpool Lane, Clerkenwell, Old Street, and Hackney, to Duraleiton (Low Leyton); this was probably the Ikeneld Street, a British trackway. The last of the leading roads from the metropolis was the Vicinal Way, which left London at Aldgate; and pursuing the present course of road, led to Camulodunum (Colchester.) These are the principal roads; and various opportunities will offer in the course of the work, to illustrate the positions laid down, which, in many points, widely differ from previous writers on the subject.

The correct period, at which the original walls of London were erected, is not ascertainable. Stow imagines that they were not built so late as 296, because, in that yeare, when Alectus the tyrant was slaine in the field, the Frankes easily entred London, and had sacked the same, had not God of his greate favour, at the very instant brought along the river of Thames certeine bandes of Romaine souldiers, who slew those Frankes in everie streete of the cittie.'* The same author states, on the authority of Simeon of Durham, that Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, was the first that walled the city, aboute the yeare of Christ, 306.' Camden says, the work was executed by Constantine himself, through the persuasions of his mother; and Maitland ascribes the raising the walls to Theodosius, who was Governor of Britain in 379. Certain it is, both from the testimony of various authors, and from the fact of many Roman remains having been found in and about them, that their erection may with safety be ascribed to them. The course of the city walls was as follows:

Beginning at a fort that occupied a part of the present Tower

of London, the line was continued by the Minories, between Poor Jury Lane and the Vineyard, to Ald-gate. Thence forming a curve to the north-west, between Shoemaker Row, Bevis Marks, Camomile Street, and Houndsditch, it abutted on Bishops-gale, from which it extended in nearly a straight line through Bishopsgate Church-yard, and behind Bethlem Hospital and Fore-street, to Cripple-gate. At a short distance further on, it turned southward by the back of Hart-street and Cripplegate Church-yard, and thence continuing between Monkwell and Castle streets, led by the back of Barber-Surgeons' Hall, and Noble-street, to Dolphin Court, opposite Oat Lane; where, turning westerly, it approached Alders-gate. Proceeding hence towards the south-west, it described a curve along the back of St Botolph's Church-yard, Christ's Hospital, and old New-gate; from which it continued southward to Lud-gate, passing at the back of the College of Physicians, Warwick-square, Stationers' Hall, and the London Coffee-house, on Ludgate Hill. From Ludgate it proceeded westerly by Cock Court to New Bridge Street; where, turning to the south, it skirted the Fleet Brook to the Thames, near which it was guarded by another fort. The circuit of the whole line, according to Stow's admeasurement, was two miles and one furlong. Another wall extended the whole distance along the banks of the Thames, between the two forts; but this, which measured one mile and about 120 yards, was long since subverted,' says Fitz-Stephen, who lived in the reign of Henry the Seventh, by the fishful river, with his ebbing and flowing.' The walls were defended at different distances by strong towers and bastions; the remains of three of which, of Roman masonry, were, in Maitland's time, to be seen in the vicinity of Houndsditch and Aldgate.

Dr. Woodward, who had an opportunity to examine the foundation of the wall in Camomile-street, near the site of Bishopsgate, about the year 1707, says, that it lay about eight feet beneath the present surface; and that almost to the height of ten feet, it was composed of rag-stone, with single layers of broad tiles interposed, each layer being at the distance of two feet from each other. The tiles were all of Roman make, and of the kind called Sesquipedales, or in English measure, seventeen inches 4-10 in length, eleven inches 6-10 in breadth, and one inch 3-10 in thickness. The mortar was so firm and hard, that the stone itself might as easily be broken. The thickness of this part, which was the whole that remained of the Roman masonry, was nine feet.

The wall was carried up to the height of about eight or nine feet more, chiefly with rag stone, having only a few bricks occasionally interposed, and that without regularity. On the outside the stone was squared and wrought into layers of five inches in thickness; between these were double courses of large bricks,