A History of London. ... With maps and illustrations. (Supplement.)

Preface

. In the multiplicity of books on London it is strange that for more than forty years no history has appeared. Thomas Allen's five volumes reached a second edition in 1839, being continued, but unfortunately not corrected by Thomas Wright. Since that time no serious attempt has been made to tell the story of our great city's origin and growth, although the materials have gradually accumulated in abundance : and many chronicles, diaries, and collections of records have been printed. The ' Liber Albus ' and the ' Liber Custumarum ' have been edited by the lamented Henry Thomas Riley for the Rolls Series, and extracts from the Letter Books for the Corporation. He also issued a translation of a chronicle which he attributed to Fitz Thedmar, and the Camden Society published several later London chronicles.

Finally, last year Canon Stubbs printed his 'Annales Londinienses ' and 'Annales Paulini.' Not to mention everything of the kind, it will easily be seen that a complete change has come over the aspect of London history in a single generation. Allen had no better authority than Stow, but we have the very documents from which Stow worked, and many others besides. It is a matter for surprise that they have been so little

PREFACE.

. used. An allusion to the existence of any authority higher than Stow's is of the rarest occurrence. One brilliant exception only proves the truth of this assertion. The papers contributed by Mr. Clark and Mr. Green to a volume entitled ' Old London,' published in 1867, show what might have been done by literally hundreds of writers who yet have preferred the beaten track. I have endeavoured, therefore, in the first of these volumes to weave the history of the city of London as told by the chroniclers into a continuous narrative : pre facing it with a topographical account of the site, and by an attempt to describe the effects on London of the Roman and Saxon invasions. The medieval history includes that of the guilds, the wards, the churches, the monasteries, and the companies. Of the later period, so well illustrated by Maitland, Malcolm, Lysons, and others, I have said comparatively little, as their works are well known and generally acces sible.

Such subjects as the great plague, the churches of Wren, the rise and progress of banking, and the modern commercial development of London would each require for adequate treatment a volume to itself, and, in fact, many such volumes exist. I have therefore en deavoured to state the mere outline in each case and to refer my readers to the authorities consulted. The second volume contains a detailed account of each parish of the suburbs, prefaced by a sketch of the history of Middlesex. Here the continuous method has of necessity been abandoned : but I have directed my attention in each chapter chiefly to an attempt to show the origin and growth of the present condition of the

PREFACE.

. VII suburbs, with special reference to the accumulations of land in the so-called " Great Estates." I have in almost all cases tried to omit mere local gossip, unless it happened to be of a kind likely to illustrate the history, or had not been already noticed by other writers. I have avoided as much as possible such things as pro cessions, executions, duels, and the loves of Charles II. : but I have endeavoured to trace each manor from its earliest mention to the present day, and to explain local names and other circumstances by the history. I trust that the numerous maps and plans may prove interesting as showing in so many cases a state of things which has passed away for ever, and as accounting for what we see by what our forefathers saw when so much that is now densely populated lay in open fields.

I should be sorry to be understood as disparaging the delightful memoirs of Cunningham, Leigh Hunt, Jesse, and others. They are entertaining to read, and if they add very little to our real historical knowledge, they at least serve to keep alive an interest in scenes and places which might otherwise be passed by. The worst of them is that they set a bad example, and their imitators have produced by the dozen, nay, by the hundred, books in which truth has been a secondary object, books which bristle with errors, and which are so far from history that they are not even good fiction. There is not a mistake in Stow or Cunningham that they have not taken up and expanded, accepting guesses as certainty, and asserting boldly what their authorities cautiously conjectured. To take a single example : among the almost countless lists that exist of the mayors and sheriffs, there is not one

PREFACE.

. VIII which has not been directly sounded on Stow's. From the imperfection of his materials, it was necessarily im perfect, and was only completed by a system of elaborate, but often erroneous guessing. Yet contemporary chroni cles containing the correct names are in print in abundance, and overlap each other in such a way as to make the task of forming a new list a mere school-boy's exercise. I ought to mention, in order that any critic who is kind enough to notice this book may be saved the trouble of arranging " parallel passages," that I have been in the habit for many years, as I pursued my investigations, of writing articles on old London and its environs in various periodicals, chiefly the Quarterly and Saturday Reviews, and the Archæological Journal. I have received much kind help from various quarters, and have to thank Mr. C. Trice Martin of the Record Office, Dr. Reginald Sharpe of the Guildhall, and Mr. W. M. Trollope of Westminster, for replies to questions which they must often have considered exceedingly troublesome if not impertinent.

I have obtained much information from Mr. J. Henry Middleton, who kindly gave me the elaborate plan of Westminster Abbey which illustrates Chapter XVI. Mr. J. J. Stevenson kindly gave me leave to use one of the illustrations of his ' House Architecture,' for which I heartily thank him ; as well as Mr. John Ward, F.S.A., for the gift of a view of Buckingham Gate. I have also to acknowledge the sympathy and ever ready assistance I received from the deeply lamented John Richard Green, whose death in the maturity of his powers is announced even as I write. To his

PREFACE.

. IX encouragement and advice I owe it that I ever com menced the studies which have resulted in the pro duction of this book. His inexhaustible stores of know ledge and his unfailing historical judgment were my constant resource during the many years in which I have been engaged in gathering materials and placing them in order. If I could have had his help until my work was completed I might have solved difficulties which now seem insuperable. I trust that some of the problems which I have stated may awaken an interest in the minds of investigators able to solve them. We know very little, for instance, about the history of guilds and companies, about the origin of the office of alderman, about the early division of parishes, and many other subjects at which I have been obliged only to hint.

Hitherto the most competent antiquaries have avoided such questions. Yet they are of the highest interest, and I can only regret to have been able to do so little towards giving them a satisfactory answer. Let me conclude these " fore words " with a quotation from ' Twelfth Night,' and without further apology " I pray you let us satisfy our eyes With the memorials and things of fame That do renown this city." March, 1883.

Chapter I. The Site Of London

The largest city in the world — Its rapid growth — A valley with a river — A lagoon with islets — The northern line of hills — The Tyburn — The central hill — The Fleet — The western city hill — The highest ground — The Wallbrook — The eastern hill — The original London — Meaning of the name — The earliest imports — London geology — Levels — The coming of the Romans Page i

Chapter II. Roman London

Buried under the modern surface — The history buried under fable — Roads to London — Ferry, ford, bridge — First facts — Boadicea — Population — Perambulation of Roman London — The Prætorium — The suburbs — London fog — Carausius — Allectus — Asclepiodotus — The Franks plunder the suburbs — The wall built round them — Its circuit — Augusta — A Christian city — Legend of St. Peter's-upon-Cornhill — Difficulties of the early history. Page 25

Chapter III. Saxon London

Date of the conquest unknown — Last appearance of Augusta — First appearance of Saxon London— Bishop Mellitus — London the metropolis of Essex — Its weakness — The church in London — Seberht and his sons — Bishop Cedd — The two kings of Essex — Erkenwald — The Mercians — Egbert of Wessex — The Danes — Alfred the Great — The wall rebuilt— The alderman Ethelred — The battle of Bemfleet — Diversion of the Lea — Ethelbert in CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. London — Canute's canal — Danish saints — Representation at Oxford— Election of Harold— Hardicanute — Edward the Con fessor — Municipal beginnings — Londoners at Hastings — The embassy to Berkhampstead — William the Conqueror Page 50

Chapter IV. London After The Conquest

Rise of municipal life — William's charter — The bishop and the portreeve — Law worthiness — Heirship — Normans in the city — The Tower — Domesday book — Citizens mentioned — William the chamberlain — Deorman of London — St. Paul's — The divisions of Willesden — Walter Mapes — William II.— Henry I. — His charter — Remissions and grants — The sheriffs of London and Middlesex — Anecdotes of the city privileges — The death of ; Adam Schot — The murder of Lawrence Duket — Welsh thieves — The billet — List of portreeves — The election of Stephen — The great fire — The earl of Essex sheriff — The empress Maud — Henry II. — Fitz Stephen's account of London — The gates — The Cheap — Houses and churches — Domestic life — Rohese Becket and her son Page 76

Chapter V. The Struggle For Liberty

London under Richard I. — The first mayor — Longchamps at the Tower— John— William Fitz Osbert — The champion of the poor — The Nore — The Interdict — Merchants and craftsmen — The great charter — The barons at St. Paul's — Fitz Walter, the standard - bearer— Patricians and plebeians — Symon Fitz Mary Henry III. — His bid for popularity — The case of the widow Vyel — The claim of the abbot of Westminster — The roll with the green seal — The mayor and aldermen at Westminster — Thomas Fitz Thomas — Elected mayor — The crafts organised — The queen insulted— The citizen army — The battle of Lewes — Parliamentary representation — Strange scene in St. Paul's — Evesham— Henry's vengeance — The mayor at Windsor — Disorder in London Regency of Sir Edward — Sir Edward le Fitz Roy — Fate of Fitz Thomas — Walter Hervey — Death of Henry III. .. Page 121 >

Chapter VI. The Rise Of The Companies

The divisions of parishes — The wards— The old families — The great estates — Portsoken — Priory of Holy Trinity — The guilds — The weavers — The Steelyard — Hervey and the crafts — His charters questioned — The Cheap depopulated — Hervey deposed — Estimate of his work Page 156

Chapter VII. The Wards And Companies

Edward I. — The city M.P.'s — Gregory Rokesley and Henry le Waleys — Allhallows, Barking — Sir Ralph Sandwich, warden — List of the wards — -The bridge over Wallbrook — The small beam — Suttone's contempt — ■ Wallace's rebellion — ■ Slaughter and banishment of Jews — Livery companies — Edward II. — Queen Isabella's tailor — Wengrave, mayor — Farringdon, mayor — Chigwell, mayor — Disorder in the city — Murder of bishop Stapleton — The Black Friars — Richard de Betoyne, mayor — Deposition of Edward II. — Charter of Edward III. — Royal present — The lists in Cheap — Fall of Mortimer — Isabella in Lombard Street — Death of Chigwell — Warlike preparations — Pulteney, mayor — Betoyne's fee as butler — The city companies . . . . Page 182

Chapter VIII. The Bishop

London in the fourteenth century — Population — Aspect of the city — The Temple — The Rolls — The new ward — Temple Bar — The Friars — The Grey Friars — Abbey of Saint Clare — Austin Friars — St. Paul's — The priests of the church — The bishops— Bishop Courtenay — Flight of John of Gaunt — Bishop Braybrook — Reforms the chapter — Richard II. — Nicholas Brember — Death of Constantyn — Richard's extravagance — An earthquake — The Lollards — The discontent in the city — Death of Richard — Tomb of Braybrook Page

Chapter IX. York And Lancaster In London

The London of Stow — Richard Whittington — The new Guildhall — William Sawtree, martyr — Lord Cobham — An obstinate heretic — The war with France — Newgate — John Carpenter, town clerk — Henry VI. — Faction in the city — The tragedy of the widow of Aldgate — Jack Cade — Warwick in London — Election of Edward IV. — Death of Henry VI Page 255

Chapter X. Shakespeare's London

Shakespeare, Stow, and Norden — Edward IV.'s popularity — Shaw, mayor — Buckingham's speech — Election of Richard III. — Crosby Place — St. Helen's, Bishopsgate — Accession of Henry VII. — The sweating sickness — The king's extortions— Accession of Henry VIII. — Evil May-day — Dean Colet — Murder of Hunne— Blackfriars — The divorce — Suppression of religious houses — Wholesale executions — The hospitals — Thomas Cromwell in the city — Aspect of London at the accession of Edward VI. — Machyn's diary — Queen Jane — Queen Mary — Bishop Bonner — Trial of queen Jane and archbishop Cranmer at the Guildhall — Wyatt's rebellion — Southwark — Probably greater than early Roman London — St. Mary Overey — Shakespeare's theatres — Accession of Elizabeth — " Her Grace " in procession — Commercial enterprise — Gresham — The Armada — Essex's rebellion — Shakespeare leaves London Page 283

Chapter XI. The War, The Plague, And The Fire

James I. — Unhealthiness of London — Anecdote of James — Hooker and Travers — The Middle Temple — The Temple church — Parish lecturers — John Milton — Charles I. — Murder of Lamb — Ship-money — The five members —Flight of Charles — The citizens' army — The new fortification— The city humbled — Atkins, mayor — Cromwell at Guildhall — Election of Charles II.- — The Plague of 1665 — The Black Death — The water-supply — The Great Fire — Burning of St. Paul's and Christ Church . . . . Page

Chapter XII. Wren

Inigo Jones— Portico of St. Paul's — Christopher Wren— State of old St. Paul's— The City churches — St. Martin Outwich— Plan for rebuilding London — Wren's parish churches — Wren's towers — His gothic style— St. Michael, Cornhill — Cost of Wren's churches —St. Stephen, Wallbrook— St. Paul's Cathedral— Wren and Burlington — Wren's death Page 362

Chapter XIII. The Bank

Charles II. and the city — The goldsmiths — Backwell — Child — The exchequer closed — Consequences — Contest for the shrievalty — The proceedings on the writ of Quo Warranto — Illness and death of Charles II. — Cornish — His trial — His execution — Flight of James II. — Meeting at Guildhall — Election of William III. — Renewal of the old charters — The siege of Derry — The establishment of the Bank of England — Patterson and Godfrey — Godfrey's death — Runs on the bank — The private banks — The South Sea Bubble — Walpole and the bank Page 391

Chapter XIV. The Corporation

The house of Brunswick — Street alterations — Removal of the gates — London Bridge — Lord Bute— The elder Pitt — John Wilkes — The 'North Briton' — Beckford and George III. — Printers arrested on a general warrant — Messengers of the Government arrested by the city authorities — The lord mayor imprisoned — Wilkes as mayor — The king's arbitrary conduct — The right of petition and remonstrance — The king's insanity — George IV. — State of prisons — Gaol fever — Newgate — Queen Caroline — Proposals to reform the corporation — Advantages of the present system — Its disadvantages — The present state of the corporation . Page CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

Chapter XV. Middlesex

The Middle Saxons— The hundreds— The population— The suburbs of London— Ecclesiastical estates — The boundaries of the county — South Mimms and the Frowyks— Gunnersbury — Stanwell — Old families— Old houses — Hampton Court— Syon— Osterley— Canons— Little Stanmore church— Chiswick— Historical memories in Middlesex Page 17

Chapter XVI. Westminster

Its antiquity— Thorney — Ossa's charter — Edgar's charter — Boundaries — Manor of Eia— Parish of St. Margaret — Westminster in Domesday — The Confessor's church — The Poets' Corner — St. Margaret's church — Caxton — Raleigh — Cowper— The palace — The Houses of Parliament— The hall — The abbey — The royal tombs — The triforium — The waxworks — The first dean — Westminster School — Ashburnham House — The government of the manor of Westminster Page 32

Chapter XVII. The Hamlets Of Westminster

The Decree of 1222 — Ludgate — Farringdon Without — St. Clement Danes — Lincoln's Inn — Smaller inns — Fickett's Field — The New Law Courts — The Savoy — St. Mary-le-Strand — Somerset House — The riverside palaces — Covent Garden — St. Martin's-in-the- Fields — Charing and the Cross — The National Gallery — St. James's, Piccadilly — St. Anne's, Soho — St. George's, Hanover Square — The Westminster estate Page CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. XVII

Chapter XVIII. Parks And Palaces

Whitehall— The king's manor — The banqueting hall — Scotland Yard — Execution of Charles I. — St. James's palace and park — Buckingham Palace — Green Park — Hyde Park— Cumberland Gate — Tyburn — The Serpentine — The manor of Neyte— Kensington Palace — Kensington Gardens — The Albert Memorial Page 10S

Chapter XIX. The Tower And Tower Hamlets

The Towers of Caesar — The parish of Stepney — The boundary of the Tower Precinct — The Tower in the thirteenth century — Queen Elizabeth at Traitor's Gate — Restoration of the Tower — The chapel of St. Peter — The records — The lions — The manor of Stepney — Its disintegration — Whitechapel — Shadwell — St. Dunstan's — St. Philip's — -St. George's-in-the-East — Limehouse — Stepney a centre of fashion — Bethnal Green — Parliament at Stepney— Colet — The Daniel and Tyssen estates — Hackney — The sixth earl of Northumberland — Lord's hold and king's land — Susannah Perwich .. .. Page 136

Chapter XX. The Northern Suburbs

Crown property— The prebendal manors of St. Paul's — The Charterhouse — The two priories of Clerkenwell — St. John's Gate — Hicks' Hall — The manor of Islington — Highbury — Lord Compton at Canonbury — Stoke Newington — Portpool and Gray's Inn — Ely Place — Sir Christopher Hatton — Bishop Wren — Lady Elizabeth Hatton — St. Etheldreda's chapel — Manor of Holborn — St. George the Martyr — The Red Lion and the Blue Boar — Great Ormond Street and Lord Macaulay Page 165

Chapter XXI. The Western Suburbs

Rugmere— The Roman road — St. Giles's pond — Bloomsbury — St. Giles's — Lincoln's Inn Fields — Lady Rachel Russell — The VOL. I. b CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. British Museum — St. George's church — St. Pancras — The old church and the new church — Tottenhall — Fitzroy Square — Tyburn— St. Marylebone— Stratford Place— The Conduit Mead — The manor of Tyburn— Hobson — The duke of Newcastle — The Harleian library — The manor of Lylleston — The Portman estate — The Harrow estate — The church of St. Marylebone — All Souls, Langham Place — Chapels — St. Mary, Bryanston Square — Tyburn tree — Paddington — Westbourne — Kensal Green — Queen Anne's son — The gravel pits — Kensington — Holland House — Campden House — Brompton — Cromwell — Chelsea — Sir Thomas More — The old church — Chelsea Hospital .. .. Page 200

Chapter XXII. The Southern Suburbs

Lambeth — -The bishops and the archbishops — St. Thomas's Hospital — Lambeth library — Stockwell and Vauxhall — Kennington — Battersea — A strange family — Bolingbroke — Nevvington — Bermondsey — Rotherhithe Page 266

Chapter XXIII. The

" METROPOLITAN AREA." Growth of suburbs — Board of Works — Use of the name "metropolis " — The definition of the area — The population and their food — The governing system — A common error — Conclusion Page 292 APPENDICES. A. List of Mayors and Sheriffs Pa^e 301 B. Members of Parliament for the City .. .. i-t-c C. Parishes in London ,cg D. Wren's Churches and Public Buildings .. .. ,, 361 E. Prebendal Manors of St. Paul's ); 36-. F. Note on Wards and Parishes ;j 357 G. Members for Westminster ; oyi H. Members for Southwark ) ,7q I. Members for Middlesex ,nr INDEX „ MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. VOLUME I. PAGE i. London before the Houses Frontispiece 2. The West-bourne, Ty-bourne, Hole-bourne and Fleet i 3. Roman London 25 4. Saxon London 50 5. London in the Thirteenth Century 120 6. London in Wards and Parishes 156 7.

St. Paul's before 1561 240 8. „ St. Faith under St. Paul 242 9. „ Interior of Choir 246 10. „ Southern Aspect 250 11. „ Entrance to Choir 254 12. Entrance to Guildhall 266 13. London in 1604, by Ryther of Amsterdam 282 14. London and Westminster, showing the Forts erected by order of the Parliament in 1643 332 15. Temple Gate 335 16. London from the North in 1665 352 17. London after the Fire of 1666 359 18. Plan for rebuilding the City of London, by Sir C. Wren 362 19. Bow Steeple 375 20. St. Magnus 376 21. St. Stephen, Wallbrook 384 22. London Bridge before 1561 418 23. Lord Mayor Crosby's Cup LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XX VOLUME II. PAGE 24. The Tower in 1553 Frontispiece 25. The Hundreds of Middlesex about 1756 .. .. 1 26. Westminster in 1658 34 27. The Benedictine Abbey of Westminster .. .. 41 28.

Westminster Hall in the Eighteenth Century 54 29. York Gate 87 30. The City and Liberties of Westminster .. .. 106 31. The Manor of Stepney 149 32. The Northern Suburbs 165 33. The Western Suburbs 201 34. The Marylebone Estate in 1708 223 35. The Southern Suburbs 267 36. London and the Suburbs, showing the Area built upon at different Dates 292 37. Parish of St. Peter Cheap Appendix F. 38. Cheap after the Conquest „

Chapter I. The Site Of London

LONDON is the name of an ever-widening tract of country covered by the buildings of a city already so large that it is equalled by no other in the world. We may even doubt if any city of the past was so great. Its population is known to a unit ; and as there is no such trustworthy information to be had about any ancient city, it is impossible to compare London with Rome, or Babylon, or Memphis. But as compared with Paris, the nearest competitor, London is almost twice as large ; and as compared with New York, it is three times as large. As compared with cities in our own islands, London exceeds Glasgow or Liverpool by more than three million inhabitants.* The growth of London has been very rapid in modern times. Those of us who can remember it for a dozen years are already unable to trace the older features of many places over which the resistless tide of building has crept.

When the Crystal Palace was placed in Hyde Park a little more than thirty years ago, there were only * Paris, 2,225,910 (1881). New York, 1,206,590 (1880). Glasgow, 511,532 (1881). Liverpool, 552,425 (1S81). London, 3,832,441 (1S81). In 1801, it was 958,863. VOL. I. B a few isolated villas between it and Brompton. When it was removed to the top of Sydenham Hill there were not even villas between it and Dulwich. Now, in 1882, the statue of Prince Albert looks out over a sea of houses from Hyde Park to the top of Sydenham Hill, un interrupted save by the Thames. For a time the suburbs of London were confined within the hundred of Ossul ston, and a corner of Surrey ; now the whole of the hundred has disappeared, and is no longer reckoned among the divisions of Middlesex ; while on the other side of the river the hundred of Brixton has been similarly devoured, and Greenwich in Kent is as much a part of London as Wapping or Chelsea.

The streets extend far into Essex, and there are suburbs even in Hertfordshire. As the houses advance, the natural features are obliterated. The shady lanes, the palings and orchards, the green meadows where we were wont to be thankful for a moment's respite from the din and bustle of the streets, are turned into villas first, then into rows of houses. The hollows are levelled up, the hills are levelled down. The brooks no longer run, the trees and the grass no longer grow. There is no more seed-time or harvest for the land the great city covers. The scanty vegetation which may still be found within its boundaries is artificial, for even the sky is invisible during a great part of the year. All seasons are alike to the thorough Londoner. The summer heat only drives him to the shady side; the winter wind does but make him call a cab.

The railways, under the pretence of taking him farther and farther out of town, only bring the town farther into the country, and cover a larger district with villas and avenues which are merely mockeries of country villages and natural woods. For my present purpose, therefore, which is to describe the London area as it was before the houses, it may be convenient not to go beyond the valley bounded by Hampstead on the north and Sydenham on the south ; although we are constantly being reminded that the tide has long ago overflowed these limits, especially to the south, and has poured down the sunny slopes far into Kent and Surrey. I shall ignore Norwood, reckon Croydon a country town, and speak as if Anerley was really what its name is said to import — a place remark able for its lonely situation.

The London district, thus restricted, lies between two lines of heights, and is traversed by a winding river of considerable width. The northern range is the highest, rising at Highgate to 424 feet, and at Hampstead to about twenty feet more. The southern range nowhere attains a greater elevation than 370 feet, but we may note that while Highgate and Hampstead stand comparatively alone, Sydenham Hill and Denmark Hill are flanked by several minor heights, such as Nunhead and Forest Hill. The northern range, too, differs from the southern in another particular : it does not fall to the level of the water at once ; but between it and the lowest ground there is interposed a line of intermediate heights, some of them rising above 100 feet. It was on one of these minor hills that the original nucleus of London was placed.

But in one important respect, its position was utterly different from what it now appears. When London was confined to the hill above the Wallbrook, the water of a broad lagoon was stretched in front of it to the south, filling the valley toward the Surrey hills, and washing almost to their feet. Though Camberwell and Peckham may even then have been dry ground, they were on the margin of a vast shallow lake, interspersed B with marshes and dotted with islets. The river flowed from Lambeth to Deptford, or from Chelsea to Black wall, at every high tide, and at low water left little land between. Now it is first deflected to the northward as it passes Westminster, it turns to the east at Charing Cross, at Rotherhithe it starts in a southerly direction and, when it has rounded the Isle of Dogs, runs north ward again to Blackwall.

The Isle of Dogs, before the docks covered all its interior surface, was for the most part seven feet below high water mark. The land on which Lambeth and Kennington and Newington stand was river or morass, the site of Southwark and Bermond sey was a string of little islands. Other places were left dry at every change. The river brought down quantities of soil, mud, sand, gravel ; and one by one little settle ments could be made and embankments could be thrown up to protect the marshes. That such is the history of many of the South London districts is evident from their names, and still more evident if we inquire into the level to which they have been artificially raised. Upper Ken nington Lane is in places only from twelve to fourteen feet above the Thames. The Old Kent Road, a thoroughfare on which the made earth is everywhere deep, rises sometimes no more than seven feet ; and Southwark Park, in spite of modern filling, is only six feet above high water.

There are one or two spots in the Ber mondsey district which, on an exact map, have a minus sign before the number which denotes their level, and are, like Dutch " polders," actually below high water mark. One by one the little eyots became islands dotting the lagoon, one by one the marshes were embanked and became meadows ; so that, when the Romans ran their great southern road across a bridge to Southwark, and on piles and embankments to the higher levels inland, the whole peninsula gradually became habitable. But there are other low-lying districts in London. The Isle of Dogs represents the delta of what was, at a not very remote period, a tidal estuary. The Lea river, flowing down from the wooded hills of Essex and Hert fordshire, was wide and full. To the west also, an estuary filled what is now St. James's Park, and an island, which is first known in history as the Thorn-ey, was at its mouth.