in ^gUe ^arfe. 181 



A fort was built, and ships came from a distance, bring- 

 ing with them the productions of other climes. Then 

 began the trees of the great forest to fall beneath the axe 

 of the woodcutter, and the marshy places were brought 

 into cultivation. Londinium rapidly advanced to the 

 dignity of a military station ; it even became the capital 

 of one of the great provinces, into which the Romans 

 divided Britain. 



A spirit of enterprise had ever characterised the polished 

 people who now gained an ascendency ; not only were 

 the marshy places in the forest drained for the purpose 

 of feeding cattle, but the low-ground which lay along the 

 river, and which, in rainy seasons, presented an unsightly 

 aspect, was recovered from the waters. Embankments 

 were thrown up on either side to prevent the encroach- 

 ments of the tide. They commenced in what are now 

 St. George's Fields, and continued along the adjoining and 

 equally shallow marshes, till they terminated in the grand 

 sea-wall of the deep fens of Essex. Thus, in compara- 

 tively a short period, those vast tracts of land which 

 presented, during winter, only a dreary expanse of 

 troubled waters; in the summer, small stagnant pools, 

 with a dry crust of mud, and here and there tufts of 

 rushes, or rank grass, were covered with splendid villas, 

 and a thronging population. 



The giant work of embanking the river was succeeded by 

 making one of those great military roads which opened a 

 communication from one end of the island to the other. 



