Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1891-08-01
ANCIENT LONDON.
what Lies Beneath the Pavemsnts az the
Aodern City

WHAT Los Beneath the Pavements az ths
Aodesn City.
10 form . true conception of the Ro-
man CITY We must sweep away all the
accumulated results of modern art and
industry. We must create a tabula
r0sG, and remove, as the mere Pigments
OF fancy. the Cathedral, the Abbey, tine
rover. the swarmipg throngs of Cheap
slde. and the endless squares of brick
buildings that shelter the millions of
the London of to-day; dissolve the
splendid vision, and think only of
the past Confined within the narrow
limits OF these walls, its greatest lenght
the river-front, its greatest breadth be
tween Cripplegate and the Thames, We
see the Roman city. It is enclosed by
wall OF stone-work aud cement from
twenty to thirty feet high. Towers or
castetla appear ct intervals It, was
built upon the plan Of all other Roman
cities, and resembled Pompeii or Lin
dunn. Its four chief streets, at least
forty feet wide, met in its forum; they
were perfectly straight, aud led directly
to the gates. At their side were mar
rover limites, or lanes, all equally
straight and free from sinuoslties. The
Roman engineers laid out their strata
with unchanginx regularity. Every
street was paved with smooth stone,
like those of Pompeii. Beneath the
streets ran the sewers and the water
pipes-we may assume-so invariably
found in every Roman city.
It is impossible to determine exactly
the site of the London forum; it is only
probable that there must have been one.
We may. however, infer, from evidence
too detailed and minute to enter upon
here. that the forum stood upon the old
est part of Roman London, viz. south
of Cornhill and east of the Mansion
House. It is by no means certain that
there was forum. But an inscribed
tile seems to show that the seat of gov
eminent of the province was at London.
Those, however, who consider the latter
importance of RomanG london can hardly
believe that it had no public buildings.
At first an Insignificant town, although
q port of some trade, for more than two
centuries it controlled the exports and
imports of the entire island. Its wharves
were filed with animation, its harbor
with ships of burden. ALI the authorities
point to London as q center of COM
mercial activity.
So complete was the security in which
South Britain remained for centuries,
under the protection of Hadrian's wall
and the fortified cities of the west, that
London was left without any other de-
tense than q strong castle on the banks
of the river until the age of Constantine
Unlike nearly all the other Roman cities,
it had no walls, was unprotected even
by q ditch, and lay open on all sides to
attack. At last, however, at some un-
known period. but between the years
$50 and 1863, by some unknown hand,
the Roman wall was built. Its extent
may easily be traced; fragments of it
still remain; and recently, at an excava-
ton made by the railway company, Q
party of anti1uarians were enabled to
study and explore more than 100 feet in
length of these ancient defenses. Saxon
and Dane, Norman and Englishman,
haye in the long course of fifteen CEN
turtles altered, overthrown, or rebuilt
them; but their course and circuit were
never changed. The Roman wall fixed
the limit of the city, and its venerable
fragments still recall the days when
the last Roman legions marched down
the Dover street. when Alfred restored
the wall, or when Pym and Hampden
found within its shelter the citadel of
modern observation-disclosures Magazine.