LON 
ft was not long before London recovered from this 
dreadful cataftropbe, and increafed fo much, that Hero- 
dian, in his life of the emperor Severus, who reigned from 
193 to 11 r, calls it “a great and wealthy city.” 
When the Romans became matters of London, they en¬ 
larged the precincts and altered their form. It extended, 
eatt and weft, from Ludgate to Totver-hill; and in breadth, 
north and fouth, from the caufeway near Cheapfide to the 
river. Its northern boundary was accidentally difcovered 
by fir Chriftopher Wren, in digging for the new founda¬ 
tion of St. Mary-le-bow, after the great fire in 1666, the 
fieeple of which now (lands upon an old Roman caufeway, 
of four feet in thicknefs, formed of rough (tone clofe and 
well rammed with Roman brick and rubbilh at the bottom, 
for a foundation, and all firmly cemented. That its weft- 
ern extremity did not extend beyond Ludgate, may be in¬ 
ferred from a fepulchral monument having been dug up, 
about the fame time, on the fpot where Ludgate church 
is fituated, of which fir Chriftopher Wren gives the fol¬ 
lowing account: “On the weft fide of the caufeway was 
fituated the prtetorian camp, which was alfo walled into 
Ludgate, in the vallum of which was dug up, near the 
gate, after the fire, a (tone, with an infcription and figure 
of a Roman foldier; a fepulchral monument, dedicated to 
the memory of Vivius Mancianus, a foldier of the fecond 
legion, ftyled Augufta, by his wife, Januaria Matrina.” 
This (tone is (till preferved at the theatre of Oxford. From 
this circumftance little doubt can remain with refpeft to 
the weftern boundary, fince, by the tenth table of the Ro¬ 
man law, it is exprefsly forbidden to bury in cities, in 
thefe words, “Let no body be interred or burnt within 
the city;” and, it is admitted by all writers on the man¬ 
ners of the Romans, that this law was obferved with great 
Itriftnefs. However we can hardly believe that the Lon¬ 
doners did not extend their ftruftures down the hill to- 
the brook which, at the bottom, ran rapidly to the river at 
low water, and felt the impreflion of the tide, when flow¬ 
ing as far as Holborn-bridge. Befides, although the laws 
of the Twelve Tables were in full force at Rome, it does 
not follow that they were fo ftriiftly obferved in municipia 
and colonies; and the (tone found, as ftated above, might 
have made part of a ccenotaph erected to the memory of a 
warrior who perhaps had been killed and buried at a great 
diftance, or was drowned in the Thames. 
It is alfo nearly impofiible to fix the exaft period udien 
the walls were built. The Latin word vallum, which 
means merely an entrenchment barricaded with pieces of 
wood, a fort of ftrong palifades, with which the ancient 
Britons ufed to furround their ftrong holds, is perhaps 
derived from the more ancient word “ wall;” and, if taken 
in that fenfe, we can eafily fuppofe that London, or the 
place where it now Hands, was walled, or entrenched, as 
loon as the natives chofe to fettle there. As ioxjlonc-walls, 
Maitland afcribes the building of them to Tiieodofius, go¬ 
vernor of Britain in 369. But Dr. Woodward and Mr. 
Pennant, with more probability, fuppofe that Ccnftantine 
the Great was the founder of them ; and this feems to be 
confirmed by the number of coins of his mother Helena, 
which have been difcovered under them, having been 
placed there by him in compliment to her. 
From fome of the coins of this emperor, it is evident 
that he had eltabliftied a mint in London ; and it is fup- 
pofed by many, that he alfo erefted it into a bilhop’s fee, 
becaufe it appears that the biftiops of London and York, 
and another Englifh biftiop, probably of Caerleon, now 
Chefter, were at a council held at Arles, in the year 314., 
againft the fchifm of the Donatifts. But there can be no 
doubt of its having been a bi&op’s fee much earlier, fince 
Camden, in treating of the divifion of Britain, fays, 
“Whereas, therefore, Britaine had, in old time, three 
archbifhops, to wit, of London, of York, and Caerleon 
in South Wales; I fuppofe that the province, which now 
we call of Canterbury (for thither the fee of London was 
tranfiated), made Britannia Prim a ; Wales, under the citie 
of Caerlon (Chefter), was Britannia Sccunda-, and the pro¬ 
vince of York, which then reached unto the limit or bor- 
D O N. 5$ 
decs, made Maxima Cafarlenjis." Now Lucius, on whofe au¬ 
thority he grounds this fact, was pope in 232 and 253, It 
is therefore certain, that Chriftianity was introduced into 
Britain much earlier than the time of Augultine the monk,- 
who converted the Saxons, and is (aid by Maitland and 
others to have conftituted Mellitus the firlt biftiop of the 
Fait Saxons, whofe capital London at that time wds, 
though perhaps, during the period in which the provincial 
Britons were overrun and almoft extirpated by the Scots 
and Piets, it might have fallen into decay, from which it 
was not likely to recover, during the domination of the 
Saxons previous to their conveifion in 600; a period of 
one hundred and fifty years. 
We labour under the fame difficulty, in endeavouring 
to difeover at what precife time the Romans abandoned 
Britain, and confequently left the metropolis to its own 
government; but their receflion feems to have happened 
between -the year 4.22 and 4.48. 
The ancient courfe of the wall was as follows : It be¬ 
gan with a fort near the prefent fite of the Tower; was 
continued along the Minories and the back of HoundS- 
ditch, acrofs Biftiopfgate-ftreet, in a ftraigbt line by the 
ftreet now called London-wall, to Cripplegate;. then re¬ 
turned fouthvvard by Crowder’s-Well Alley, (where feve- 
ral remnants of lofty towers were lately to be feen,) to Ai¬ 
de rfgate ; thence along the back of Bull-and-Mouth ftreet 
to Newgate, and again along the back of the houfes in 
the Old Bailey to Ludgate ; icon after which it probably 
fmiftied with another fort, where the houfe, late the king’s 
printing houfe, in Black Friars, now' (lands; from hence 
another wall ran near the river-fide, along Thames-ftreet, 
quite to the fort on the eaftern extremity. The wails were 
three miles a hundred and fixty-five feet in circumference, 
guarded at proper diftances on the land fide with fifteen 
lofty towers; fome of them were remaining within thefie 
few years. Maitland mentions one twenty-fix feet high, 
near Gravel-lane, on the welt fide of Houndfditch; ano¬ 
ther, about eighty paces fouth-eaft towards Aldgate; and 
the bafes of another, fupporting a modern houle, at the 
lower end of the ftreet called the Vinegar-yard, fouth 
of Aldgate. The walls, when perfect, are fuppofed to 
have been twenty-two feet high, the towers forty. Thefe, 
with the remnants of the wall, proved the Roman ftructure, 
by the tiles and diipofition of the mafonry. London-wall, 
near Moorfields, is now the molt entire part left of that an¬ 
cient precinft. And, on a fmall paflage, leading from the 
Broadway, Blackfriars, to Bridge-ltreet, there is at this mo¬ 
ment a molt venerable lpecimen of this ancient manner of 
building. It is a curious remnant,in which one may eafily 
obferve that the cement which was employed to bind the 
lton.es, has, by length of time and the nature of its intrin- 
fic compofition, acquired a greater degree of liardnefs than 
the very (tones it was intended to unite together. 
The gates, which received the great military roads, 
were four. The Praetorian Way, the Saxon W ailing -Jlreet, 
pafied under one, on the fite of the late Newgate; veltiges 
having been difcovered of the road in digging above Hol¬ 
born-bridge; it turned down to Dowgate, or more pro¬ 
perly Dwr-gate, or Water-gate, where.there was a traje6lus a 
or ferry, to join it to the Watling-ftreet, which was con¬ 
tinued to Dover. The Hermin-ltreet palled under Crip¬ 
plegate; and a vicinal way went under Aldgate by Beth¬ 
nal-green, towards Old Ford, a pafs over tire river Lee to 
Duroleiton, the modern Layton in Ellex. 
The influx of northern nations in Italy having forced 
the Romans to leave Britain, the Saxons, under their 
leaders Hengift and Horfa, landed in 44.8, having been 
invited over by the natives, as auxiliaries, to defend them 
againft the Scots and Piets. They were received as friends 5 
but, fays Bede, “ they minded to deftroy the countrey as 
enemies; for, after they had driven out the Scots and Piets, 
they alfo drave the Britaines, fome over the feas, fome 
into the wafte mountaines of Wales and Cornwall, and 
divided the countrey into divers kingdomes among them.- 
felves.” Siow's Survey. 1633. 
London fell into the hands of thefe invaders about the 
1- yea? 
