themselves of the peculiarities of climate, these people formed the British streets and buildings after models of their own cities, and did not discover that the more temperate air of this island, precluded the necessity of such buildings, as in Rome, to skreen the inhabitants from the heat of the sun. We deduce from this circumstance, the narrowness of most of the streets in the ancient cities of Britain.

The foundations of brick and stone were evidently Roman additions to the British buildings, and the round holes in the roofs of their cabins, were by the former elegantly altered into cupola chimnies. The coverings of these huts, formerly of long reeds, now gave way to the more convenient mantling of straw thatch; and of such materials was the roofing of buildings in London, within these four centuries. The respectable structures were, however, more conveniently covered with scindulæ, or shingles, and some with tegulæ, or tiles. Another kind of covering was that species of light-coloured stones abounding in Britain, denominated glatta, or slate. Some Roman buildings in Britain, appear by their remains, to have been actually roofed with this useful material, "which was," as Hearne informs us in his account of the Stunsfield pavement, "fastened to the roofs with nails of iron, hooked, long, and large*."

Similar to the modern temporary windows of unfinished houses, was the defence against the intrusion of weather, and the medium for the admission of light to the dwellings of our ancestors. Neither the Britons nor Romans had found out the obvious, necessary, convenient, and agreeable application of the metal whence glass is obtained. The windows of the gentry were furnished merely with lattices of wood, or sheets of linen; even the windows of our cathedrals in the seventh century, were composed of only substitutes 1.

Leland, vol. viii. p. 30.

It

+ Window is provincially pronounced Windor, or Wind-door, from the Welsh, Uynt Dor, signifying the passage for the wind.-Whitaker. Polybius gives us the following description of a Roman intrenchThe prætorium or square for the general's tent was two hun

ment.

dred

It may here be proper to advert to circumstances which evidently display the early respectability of London. The Romans were a sagacious and intelligent people; it could not therefore escape them, that the situation of London was singularly favourable for traffic; and their foresight has

dred feet each way; this was surrounded by the tents of the tribunes, six on each side, taking up a space of fifty feet. The forum or marketplace was on one side of the prætorium, two hundred feet in breadth, and three hundred and fifty feet in length. Opposite, on the other side of the prætorium, were the lodgings of the quæstors, of equal length and breadth with the forum. To these were joined the lodgings of the præfecti. These parts of the encampment were bounded by the principal streets which intersected each other at the prætorium, and passed to the four gates. On the other sides of these streets, were two long divisions, each one hundred feet broad, and five hundred feet long, subdivided into ten squares, in which were lodged the ten companies of cavalry. On the outside of these compartments were two other divisions of equal length, only fifty feet wide, these were the lodgings for ten companies of the triarvi. Another street fifty feet broad, containing two long divisions, one hundred feet wide, and of equal length with the former, of ten squares, were appointed for the lodgings of the ten companies of the principes. Two other divisions, equal in length and breadth with the former, were the lodgings of the ten companies of the hastati or spearmen. To these was added another street, fifty feet wide; then two other long divisions one hundred and fifty feet wide, but of equal length with the former: these were the lodgings for the auxiliary cavalry; other divisions two hundred feet wide, but of equal length with the former, were appropriated as the lodgings of the auxiliary infantry; a transverse street contained the lodgings for select voluntary cavalry; the select voluntary foot, with the former, occupied a space three hundred and fifty feet long, and two hundred feet broad: another transverse street intervened, of one hundred feet broad, in which were lodged the foreigners and allies, occupying a space of three hundred and fifty feet long, and one hundred and fifty feet broad: on the outside of these were placed the extraordinary infantry, and the extraordinary cavalry; these together occupied a space of four hundred and fifty feet long, and one hundred and fifty feet broad, and were all bounded by a void space around the whole camp, two hundred feet broad. The four principal entrances were each fifty feet wide. All this repository of warfare was surrounded by the vallum and the fosse, or ditch. The reader will observe, however, that this camp is imagined to be composed of two legions and their auxiliaries, who were lodged exactly in the same manner, one legion on one side the street, and the other opposite.

been

been fully justified by the event. "Rising on a gentle declivity, in the heart of a fertile soil and wholesome climate, at a commodious distance from the sea, and washed by a beautiful, deep and broad river, navigable by vessels of every form and size, it seemed in immediate contact with every port on the continent; and as experience has demonstrated, with every port and shore of the globe."

It was in London therefore, that the Romans fixed their grand emporium, and wisely incorporated the original settlers with the mass of Roman citizens; this was about A. D. 54.

The progress of cultivation was slow but determinate; the necessary attention, however, which its encouragement produced, stimulated the powers of invention and ingenuity, and of course created employment for the active mind. Thus the vast attractives of health, pleasure, and the hope of riches, combined in alluring fresh inhabitants to the municipium, that so early as the beginning of Nero's reign, it had increased to such a degree, as to be deemed the largest, the most populous, and the most opulent city in the British island. We are informed also by the future testimony of Tacitus, in his Annals *, that " London, so called from its situation, and Augusta from its magnificence, was now ilJustrious for the vast number of merchants who resorted to it for widely extended commerce, and the abundance of every species of commodity which it could supply."

Another grand mark of the consequence which ancient London had acquired at this early period, is, that in the famous Itinerary of Antoninus, no less than seven of the fifteen iters commence or terminate here; a very satisfactory proof that it was considered by the Romans as the metropolis of the country; and this is further established by another circumstance, marking the distinction and superiority of this metropolis, that it was the residence of the vicar of Britain under the Roman emperors, and of his retinue, who maintained the dignity of his office in great splendour. The

*Lib, xiv. c. 33

abode

abode of such an officer of distinction clearly marks London to have been the seat of government, of justice, and of the finances; which consequently contributed to her magnificence, wealth, and importance; so early as A. D. 359, no less than eight hundred vessels were employed in her port for the exportation of corn only. The felicity of her situation induced universal commerce, which procured to her citizens every other advantage.

Very few places, except London, have any trace of being Roman stations, but by name. She alone, has outlived the ravages of time, revolution, and accident; has risen more glorious from disaster, and, as a modern writer observes, has acquired a splendor which sinks the pride of her once Imperial mistress.”

It has been asserted, that London was first regularly walled by the empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great; the fortifications were, however, certainly enlarged by Theodosius, afterwards emperor of Rome, whose capacious mind determined him to afford a future benefit and security, to a city which, being rendered weak by its magnitude and opulence, was frequently a prey to selfish governors or lawless banditti, as in the present instance it had been to the Picts and Scots. Theodosius, from a state of distress and anarchy had, during his short administration of six years, restored the country to unexampled prosperity and respectability, and when he was called to fill the highest station in the empire, he was attended to his galley by the benedictions of grateful multitudes, and fervent prayers for his prosperity.

Bereft of the valour and magnanimity of her deliverer, Britain was again unhappily a prey to the robbery and spoliation of her inveterate neighbours, who were no longer restrained by the bravery of Theodosius, nor awed by his authority; and very soon evinced to the afflicted inhabitants, that unprotected walls were but trifling bulwarks of defence. The Romans had now withdrawn their troops, the flower of the British youth had been drafted to recruit the Imperial army, during the contention for superiority; and

to

to fill up the measure of wretchedness, famine and pestilence threatened the British colony with extermination; and there is little doubt but that London, from its consequence in the state, must have peculiarly felt the utmost force of these national disasters; but happily for the feeling mind, history has drawn a veil over such scenes of horror, and excludes the pain of contemplating the distressed Londinum Augusta, a vast field of rapine, bloodshed, and disease.

The admission of the Saxons was peculiarly calamitous to Britain; a sanguinary and unremitting contention of massacre and plunder for nearly one hundred and fifty years was the consequence, which terminated in the subjugation of the British spirit, and nearly of the British name. Under the Roman government, twenty-eight considerable cities, besides many villages, &c. had been raised, and the inhabitants had made great progress in arts and sciences; but the fierce barbarians, whom they had invited over as protectors, profaned their contract; thus the country was again put into confusion, and such of the native Britons as they did not immolate, they reduced to the most absolute servitude. Ruinous neglect, and destructive violence levelled the elegant fabrics raised by the conquerors of the world; the beautiful and venerable productions of Grecian and Roman architecture were levelled with the dust and London, even at this day, among other favourite residences of Imperial government, has to deplore the loss of edifices sacred to religion, to science, and to virtue.

A very curious description of Roman London is given in a letter to Hearne the antiquarian, in 1714, from the ingenious and elaborate Mr. John Bagford, who made the research into the antiquities of this city his peculiar study: from which the following is extracted:

"When the Romans came first into this island, they landed near Dover, and from thence proceeded by easy journies towards this city, raising their military ways, and at every ten miles distance fixing their stations or camps.

"Their approach was by several ways both on the right hand and left, as will appear from the following observations,