88 LONDON DISTRICT. 



other and it becomes possible to cross the Thames. Above the 

 bridge only narrow strips of alluvium are found, and fords 

 existed at several spots, notably at Westminster (Thornev) and 

 Brentford : the latter is almost certainly that used by Julius 

 Csesar (B.C. 54) ; the ford and river banks were protected by 

 rows of stakes which have been discovered, and a post to com- 

 memorate the event has now been erected beside the Ferry 

 Stage. 1 Other fords across the Thames were at Halliford and 

 Staines; of the various tributaries, the Colne was crossed at 

 Uxbridge and Watford, the Brent at Brentford, the Lea at 

 Chingford, Old Ford and Stratford, and the Roding at Woodford 

 and Ilford, on the north ; the Wey at Weybridge (an important 

 crossing in Bronze Age times), the Ravensbourne at Deptford, 

 the Cray at Crayford, and the Darent at Dartford, on the south. 



In ancient times the traffic between Britain and the 

 Continent mostly used the Kentish ports ; that with eastern 

 and northern England sought the lowest crossing of the Thames, 

 where London Bridge now stands, that for the north-west and 

 more immediately for the important town of Verulamium (St. 

 Albans) found a more direct route by Westminster. 



It is in Roman times that we first find an important and 

 permanent settlement at London, which Tacitus describes 

 (A.D. 100) as ' copia negotiatorum et commeatorum maxime 

 celebre.' Systems of Roman roads converge both on London 

 Bridge and Westminster : to the latter runs Watling Street 

 (shown on the map Sheet 4), to the former the road from 

 Chichester (Stane Street). The crossing in Bermondsey is 

 marked by a large Roman cemetery ; the sub -soil is Low Terrace 

 gravel, but Besant pictures the marsh extending as far south as 

 the rising ground of Camberwell and Denmark Hill. 2 On the 

 northern side we find the great north-west road running to Hyde 

 Park Corner along Park Lane and Edgware Road, while from 

 London roads radiate west to Silchester and Bath, by several 

 routes into the north-west road just mentioned, north by the 

 ' Great North Road ' and eastwards across the Lea at Old Ford 

 to Colchester. 3 



The reasons for the greater prosperity of London, as compared 

 with Westminster, are geological and geographical. The West- 

 minster ford depends on the little eyot formerly known as 

 Thorney, but behind this was the marshy alluvium of the 

 Tyburn before firm ground was reached on the north. On this 

 eyot space was only available for a tiny hamlet, and the mouth 

 of the Tyburn, by Scotland Yard, formed only a small port, 

 known as the Mersfleet. The City of London stands on twin 

 hills of Middle Terrace gravel and brickearth, separated by the 



1 See Sharpe, Montagu, ' Antiquities of Middlesex in British, Roman and 

 Saxon Times,' 1905, pp. 1, 8, 18 ; Turner, Fred, ' History of Brentford,' Part I, 

 1921. 



2 ' South London,' 1898, Chap. I. 



8 Smith, R. A., ' Roman Roads and Saxon Churches of London,' Archceo- 

 logia, vol. Ixviii, 1917, pp. 229-262 ; ' Victoria County History of London,' vol. i. 



