THE

HE prescription of our subject, not permitting us to be very diffuse concerning the remote history of this magnificent city, we deduce such concise materials only as are merely appropriate to our purpose, and a glance at etymology, therefore, must be sufficient. Cæsar, in his Commentaries, denominates it the chief city of the Trinobantes, which, with submission to higher authority, is easily converted to Tre-yn-y-bant, describing the exact situation of the British town in the valley, the vale of London being certainly one of the most extensive in the British dominions, taking it from Brentwood to Windsor one way, and from Hampstead to the Surrey Hills another.

That London was originally a British town is undoubted; and although it might afterwards be dignified with the names of Londinium, Augusta, &c. it is very evident that the Romans, with the national spirit of all conquerors, affected to bury British under Roman denominations; and we are led to assert this from the conviction, that had this been a town originally constructed by the Romans, they would certainly VOL. I. No. 1.

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have

have imposed upon it a Roman name. It is most probable therefore, that these conquerors finding a site which had been previously occupied, they necessarily continued the original British name, softened by a Roman termination.

Cæsar and Tacitus inform us, that the British towns were not scenes of regular and general residence; they were only their places of refuge amid the dangers of war, where they might occasionally lodge their wives, children, and cattle, and the weaker resist the stronger, till succours could arrive. These towns were planted in the centre of their woods, defended by the advantages of their position, and secured by a regular rampart and fosse. In their holds, they resisted the attacks of the best troops under the command of the most experienced officers in the world, and even gained from the latter, the repeated praise of excellent fortifications *.

As the Romans regularly extended their conquests, they appear to have equally erected stations for themselves, and cities for the Britons, thus Claudius constructed the cities of Glevum or Glouster, Colonia or Colchester, Augustæ Trinobantes, and other lesser places. By such means the fuccefs of the Roman arms was distinctly marked, and the face of the island of Britain gradually brightened up by the progress of cultivation. Thus the acts of civil life, and the sweets of social happiness superseded the rough genius of selfish policy.

In the mode of forming towns used by the Romans, their first object seems to have been to construct military ways, consistently with the ancient custom of making new roads, preparatory to the general's approach; hence the Scripture

"Cognoscit non longè ex eo loco oppidam Cassivelauni abesse, sylvis palludibusque munitum; quo satis magnus hominum pecorisque numerus convenerit. Oppidum autem Britanni vocant quùm sylvas impeditas vallo atque fossa munierunt. Locum reperit egregiè naturâ atque opera munitum. Se in sylvas abdiderunt, locum nacti egregiè naturâ et opere munitum.-quem-jam antè præparaverant."

By these and many other passages among the Latin authors, it will easily be allowed, that our British ancestors possessed more considerable skill in the art of fortification, than some historians are willing to grant them. Whitaker's Manchester, &c.

text, Prepare ye, make ready the way, &c." is explained. The chief excellence of these roads was their direct course; for being constructed at a period when the laws of property were superseded by the power of conquest, they were naturally laid out in the straightest lines from place to place. Many of these roads have continued uninjured to the present period. It appears, however, from undoubted authority, that the two great ways denominated Watling and Ikening Street, were undertaken by the Belgian Britons, before the Roman invasion. These were formed, for the purposes of commerce, and constructed by the concurrent endeavours of the other Britons, so as to traverse the central parts of the island, and lead to such provinces as were stored with vendible commodities.

The modes of Roman policy gaining ground in all their settlements, it is not surprising that the conquered, should also adopt, by their near residence, objects of convenience, to which they were invited by the expansion of Roman manners. Hence we observe, that to the original street others were annexed, and branched out in every direction. In the intervals formed by the intersection of these streets, some vacant space was assigned for a market. This was evidently an introduction by the Romans. Improvements naturally occurred to convenience, and soon established the regular economy of other public and private structures, streets, walls, and towns; magnificent dwellings for the rich soon made their appearance, and necessity impelled an allotment of smaller spaces for the habitations of the useful and laborious populace. By adhering to this principle, the greatest political advantages resulted, industry was stimulated, morals were improved by example, and the reciprocal distribution of good offices, incorporated a community of regularity, convenience, and prosperity, instead of a heterogeneous mixture of rudeness, unskilfulness, and disorder,

The streets and buildings of the Romans were not however constructed upon a plan to promote future health, or prevent accident; the first were extremely narrow; the jatter consequently, too lofty. Thus, neglecting to inform

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themselves of the peculiarities of climate, these people form. ed 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 eenturies. 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 sglatta, 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 glafs 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 substi

tutes.

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 intrench ment: The prætorium or square for the general's tent was two hun

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 quaŝtors, 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 divi- • sions, 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 Sormer, were appropriated as the lodgings of the auxiliary infantry: à transverse street contained the lodgings for the 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 manper, one legion on one side the street, and the other opposite,

been