CHAPTER X

LONDINIUM 198

APPENDIX ON MATERIALS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF MAPS OF EARLY LONDON 212

NOTES ON FIGURES

London and the Thames, from Speed's Map, 1610 _Frontispiece_

PAGE

FIG. 1.--Goddess of Hope. (Roman bronze found in London). Restored from Roach Smith's _Collectanea_. About two-thirds full size 4

FIG. 2.--Stone Weapons, from the Thames at Westminster. From the Roach Smith Collection 7

FIG. 3.--Centre of Celtic Bronze Shield, from the Thames at Wandsworth. Now in the British Museum 8

FIG. 4.--Celtic Bronze Swords 9

FIG. 5.--Coin of Cunobeline. Enlarged 10

FIG. 6.--Bronze Lamp, Roman, found in London 11

FIG. 7.--Coin of Claudius and another of Constantius, the latter inscribed London (P. LON). Enlarged. The first shows an equestrian statue over a triumphal arch lettered DE BRITANN; the second an altar to Peace, inscribed BEAT TRANQLITAS 18

FIG. 8.--Christian Monogram from Cakes of Pewter found at Battersea. Now in the British Museum. One, in addition to the [Greek: CHR], has the words SPES IN DEO; the other [Greek: A·Ô·] 21

FIG. 9.--Bronze Bracelet found in London; ornamented with a Cross. Now in the British Museum 23

FIG. 10.--Head of a Pin found in London. Now in the British Museum. A little less than full size. The subject seems to represent Constantine's vision of the Cross 24

FIG. 11.--Enamelled Plate of Bronze, about half size of original, found in London. Now in the British Museum. From Roach Smith's collection 25

FIG. 12.--Cross from Mosaic Pavement found in London. Now in the British Museum. It forms the centre of a geometrical pattern 27

FIG. 13.--Saxon Spear found in London, and now in the British Museum 29

FIG. 14.--Coin of Halfdan, with Monogram of London. From a unique example in the British Museum. It seems to have been coined on the taking of London by the Dane leader in 872 35

FIG. 15.--Saxon Swordhilt, of pierced bronze. Now in the British Museum. Found in London 36

FIG. 16.--Earliest printed view of London, from the _Cronycle of Englonde_, Pynson, 1510 39

FIG. 17.--London and the Roman Roads: The Watling Street through Greenwich and Edgware; the Erming Street through Merton and Edmonton, called also the Stone Street south of London; the Here Street through Brentford and Stratford 53

FIG. 18.--Roman Wall of London. Restored after the facts given by Roach Smith; the battlements and ditch added 75

FIG. 19.--Detail of Roman Wall of London. From a drawing of Roach Smith's 77

FIG. 20.--From the Common Seal. Reverse, enlarged, 1224. See also Fig. 23; it shows the city wall with battlements and turrets 78

FIG. 21.--Section of Roman Wall and Ditch. Restored from excavation near Aldersgate recorded in _Archæologia_ 80

FIG. 22.--From Matthew Paris, 1236. From MS. in the British Museum, describing the route to Jerusalem. It gives the names of six gates, the spire of St. Paul's, etc., and refers to the legend of "Troie la Nuvela" 83

FIG. 23.--The Common Seal of London, 1224. It shows St. Paul patron of the City, such as he was figured on the City banner, rising behind one of the gates; right and left the Tower and Baynard's Castle 85

FIG. 24.--Fragment found in the South Wall, against the river. From Roach Smith's _Collectanea_. It looks late work, but is of marble 91

FIG. 25.--Fragment found in South Wall with the last 93

FIG. 26.--Danish Sword from the Thames at London. Recently shown in the New Gallery. The hilt was inlaid in precious metal. There are similar swords in the British Museum, called the Scandinavian type 112

FIG. 27.--Plan showing the relation of the Central Wards and the principal Streets; also the extent of the extra-mural liberties. Notice especially how Bridge, Langbourne, and Bishopsgate Wards lie over the two great streets, and meet at the Fourways of the great Roman Roads. See Fig. 17 127

FIG. 28.--Saxon Brooch found in Cheapside. Of lead; nearly full size. In the British Museum 153

FIG. 29.--Coin of Alfred, with Monogram of London. Enlarged. The name in the field is that of the moneyer. Compare monogram with Fig. 14, from which it seems to have been copied 155

FIG. 30.--Tomb of King Ethelred, 1017. In Old St. Paul's. From Hollar's drawing in Dugdale 162

FIG. 31.--Ninth or Tenth Century Tombstone from St. Paul's Churchyard. Inscribed in runes. Now in the Guildhall Museum 164

FIG. 32.--Saxon Tomb from St. Benet Fink. Restored from fragment in the British Museum; compared with one found at Cambridge, like the entire figure 166

FIG. 33.--Head of Cross from St. John's, Walbrook. Now in the British Museum 168

FIG. 34.--Saxon Coffin-lid from Westminster Abbey, North Cemetery, now by entrance to Chapter-House. It had been added to a Roman sarcophagus 170

FIG. 35.--Roman Pavement found in Threadneedle Street. Drawn _in situ_ by Fairholt, 1854. From the original in the author's collection 199

FIG. 36.--Roman Brick, inscribed London, about one-twelfth full size. From Roach Smith 203

FIG. 37.--Inscriptions from Roman Brick. P·BRI·LON 203

FIG. 38.--Roman Tomb from outside of the East Walls. Restored from fragments found together, and now in the British Museum 205

FIG. 39.--Inscription from Roman Tomb. Now in the British Museum 206

FIG. 40.--End of a Roman Tomb found in London. Now in the British Museum. From a drawing by W. Archer 207

FIG. 41.--Leaden Cist for funereal use, found in London, and now in the British Museum 207

FIG. 42.--Plate of Figured Glass for Decoration, about two-thirds full size. Now in the British Museum. Found in London. Figure restored. From Roach Smith 208

FIG. 43.--Roman Inscription, from Clement Lane, E.C.; now lost. About two feet high 209

INTRODUCTION

A great burh, Lundunaborg, which is the greatest and most famous of all burhs in the northern lands.--_Ragnar Lodbrok Saga._

Of the hundreds of books concerning London, there is not one which treats of its ancient topography as a whole. There are, it is true, a great number of studies dealing in an accurate way with details, and most of the general histories incidentally touch on questions of reconstruction. Of these, the former are, of course, the more valuable from the topographical point of view, yet even an exhaustive series of such would necessarily be inadequate for representing to us the ancient city in a comprehensive way.

In an inquiry as to the ancient state of a city, a general survey, besides bringing isolated details into due relation, may suggest new matter for consideration in regard to them, and offer fresh points of proof. For instance, the extra-mural roads were directed to the several gates, the gates governed the internal streets, while these streets ran through wards, and gave access to churches and other buildings.

The subject of London topography is such an enormous one, and the involutions of unfounded conjecture are so manifold, that an approximation to the facts can only be obtained by a critical resifting of the vast extant stores of evidence. In the present small essay I have, of course, not been able to do this in any exhaustive way; but I have for years been interested in the decipherment of the great palimpsest of London, and, in trying to realise for myself what the city was like a thousand years ago, I have in some part reconsidered the evidences. The conclusions thus reached cannot, I think, be without some general interest, although from the very nature of my plan they are presented in the form of notes on particular points, and discussions of opinions commonly held, with little attempt at unity, and none at a pictorial treatment of the subject.

Of mistaken views still largely or nearly universally accepted which will be traversed here, I may mention a few salient examples. For instance, Stow's opinion that London Bridge before the twelfth century was far to the east of the later bridge, and that the mural ditch was a mediæval work; Stukeley's opinion that the old approach through Southwark pointed on Dowgate, that Old Street was the great west-to-east Roman road, and that Watling Street in the city carries on the name of a street which formerly lay across its course, running from London Bridge to Newgate. From more recent writers, I may cite Mr. J. E. Price's idea that the Cheap was not at an early time a thoroughfare; Mr. J. R. Green's views,[1] as given in his _Conquest of England_, that Saxon London "grew up on ground from which the Roman city had practically disappeared"; that the Roman north gate and the north-to-south street were considerably to the east of the line of Bishopsgate and Gracechurch Street; and that the Tower of London was built by the Conqueror on "open ground only recently won from the foreshore of the river." The plan which accompanies these views is equally visionary; a large quarter of the city east of St. Paul's is lettered "The Cheap"; there is no Aldgate Street (now Leadenhall Street), the Langbourne appears as a stream, and there is a curious selection of churches, amongst which is St. Denis, for which we are referred to a note in Thorpe's _Ancient Laws_, regarding a gift of London property to the monastery of _St. Denis in Francia_. Mr. Loftie holds that Aldgate was first opened in the time of Henry I., and that no mediæval gate exactly occupied a Roman site; that the eastern road turned off outside Bishopsgate; that Ludgate was still more recent than Aldgate, and that it only opened on the Fleet river; that the Strand was not a route before mediæval days; that there was a Roman citadel on the high ground from the Walbrook to Mincing Lane, and that the Langbourne was a ditch to this stronghold. In the last book on the subject, called _Mediæval London_, we are again told of the oblique Roman Watling Street; Cheap is described as "a great square"; and it is assumed that not only the Langbourne, but the equally mythical Oldbourne, supplied the city with water.

I have here only rapidly set down a few of the opinions which are still current[2]--views which are repeated, embellished, and amplified to distraction in more popular writings, and set out with much appearance of exactitude in most misleading maps.

The whole question, indeed, of the early topography of London is overloaded on a quite insufficient basis of fact, and quakes and gives way under the least pressure of examination.