Besides the Northgate, the Romans appear, according to remains found, to have contributed the inevitable bath and sudatorium. On their departure from Britain, Lincoln was made the capital of the kingdom of Mercia by the Saxons in 518. Vortimer, who endeavoured to oppose them, was slain and interred here. From 786 Lincoln suffered repeatedly from visitations of the Danes, control being recovered by Edmund II., according to agreement with Canute in 1016. Throughout the whole of this period the only peace the city had enjoyed was when Alfred the Great subdued the Danes. However, Edmund II., better known as Edmund Ironsides, did not live many days longer, being murdered at Oxford. Whereupon, in 1017, Canute took possession of the murdered monarch's territory, in which Lincoln was included. William I. then came along in 1086, swept away close upon two hundred houses to make room for the erection of a castle--on a site which meant the occupation of nearly one-fourth of the old Roman city. The Castle still has traces of Norman work, the foundations of which were formed of enormous beams of wood and a mixture of thin, coarse mortar, used for pouring into the joints of masonry and brickwork, usually called "grouting." In that wonderful survey of his--the "Doomsday Book"--fifty-two parishes are stated to have composed this city. The Castle in 1140 figured in the disputes between the Empress Matilda and Stephen, the latter of whom was crowned here in 1141. Stephen was, however, made prisoner, but was afterwards exchanged, and lived three years later to celebrate Christmas here. But prior to this period Lincoln was for the first time erected into a see in the reign of William Rufus. [Illustration: LINCOLN THE WEST TOWERS] In pursuance of a decree of a synod held at London at this time, that all the episcopal sees should be removed to fortified places, Remigius, the Bishop of Dorchester, determined to establish the seat of his diocese at Lincoln. He built the church and an episcopal palace, but died just before its consecration. His work was completed by his successor, Robert Bloet. In the reign of Henry II. the Diocese, which once extended from the Thames to the Humber, was curtailed to add a part to form that of Ely. It again suffered diminution in Henry VIII.'s time, when the limits of the Sees of Oxford and Peterborough were defined. In spite of it all, Lincoln's see is fairly extensive, though it suffered again in 1884. Prior to this monarch's reign Lincoln had as many as fifty-two churches, but when he decided upon reformation from Popery their number was greatly diminished. Their names, still preserved, are the sole reminders of their former existence, with the exception of fourteen which remain. These have probably been rebuilt.