The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1874-05-21
rIrrEEN FEET BELOW LONDON.
oSs or EUGENE LAwnExcE's occAsI PApErs fRo
EUROPE.

k4x A&SASN = 1880 =
oSr or EUGENE rAwnrxcz's OCCASIONAL PApErs FRoa
EURoPE.
Fifteen feet below the surface o.
modern London, where now the vast
warehouses and commercial buildings
Of England's merchants engross the
trade Of every cline, lie the remains Of
i magnificent city, whose opulence and
beauty have been but family indicated
by modern explorations. No active CT
forts have been made to reveal the won
dcrs of the Roman metropolis OF Eng
land. Larger, fairer and more popu.
lous than Herculaneum Of Pompeii, il
has been suffered to rest unnoticed and
almost forgotten, except where q few
casual excavations have brought to
view the rich pavements of it's villas
and temples, and the various works Of
art or of common use that prove the
cultivation and refinement Of its pco.
pic. One important trait of the great
ness of the buried city, however, may
still be readily traced. Its tall and
massive wall, carefully traced with
smooth stone and defended by frequent
towers, outlasted all the revolutions OF
the Saxon and the Norman period, de-
Tended the city of Alfred Of the Plan.
gave names to the various
gateways and streets that marked its
circuit, and may still be seen in huge
masses of stone work that rise above
the surface of the earth in st. Giles
Churchyard and in the neighborhood OF
the Tower. A street called London
Wall probably followed a part of its
inner line. The length of the Roman
rampant was more than a mile, from the
Tower to Ludgate Hill and its breadth
about half mile, inclosing within an
irregular square sufficient room to con.
tain a population of several hundred
thousand persons, and covered with a
dense array of splendid or comfortable
building that seem to have initiated the
magniiicence of the Eternal City.
The Thames, the parent Of London in
every age, was already in the Roman
period the center of commerce. and
British fleets were renowned in the age
of Constantine and Diocletian. That
broad alluvial basin in which the city
lies surrounded by range Of moder-
ate elevations seems early to have at
tracted the settlers and the trader. Its
and level surface has formed
from the opening of history the stage
on which some of the chief scenes in
the drama of mans existence have been
exhibited. Looking down from the
hills of Highgate over the dim and
misty evening landscape, one may see
Briton, Roman, Saxon, Norman, kings
and knights, Puritans and Chcvaliers,
enter the narrow circuit of the Roman
Wall perform their brief and too often
tragic parts, glide specter-like away.
But Of the Roman occupation Of Lon
don there seems even less Of reality
than Of that of any other race. They
came from the distant south to the mis-
ty river, built on its banks one Of their
faircst capitals, fourishcd for few
centuries, and then abandoned their
fine houses. their temples, and their al
tars to the barbarian and the stranger.
They seem to have fled with the depart
ing legions or persisted in the fierce in
roads of the Saxons. The Roman city
sank into an utter decay. Within the
limits of the wall not even temple nor
a circus has survived the flow Of years.
The earth has gathered thickly over
the scene of ruin, and it is only when
some deep excavation is made in the
pebbly soil that the rare traces Of the
lost city appear.
Yet enough has been unfolded of its
early magnificence to enable the care
full antiquarian to reconstruct its fall.
ing habitations, and revive the transit
tory vision of the Roman capital of
Britain. From its central milestone the
great roads of the province, built of
massive stonework, and lasting until
late in the Norman period, ran north
ward to Scotland and westward to the
borders of Wales. Waiting street
formed a part of the western line; traces
of the others may be found almost to
the base of the Grampian Hills. They
were covered no doubt in the period of
Roman prosperity with throngs of trav-
elers on foot, with chariots and wagons,
with bands Of soldiers marching to the