After dwelling on the shipping and commerce of the Thames, he concludes his article on London by stating “that London is a huge magazine of men, money, ships, horses and ammunition, of all sorts of commodities necessary or expedient for the use or pleasure of mankind. That London is the mighty rendezvous of nobility, gentry, courtiers, divines, lawyers, physicians, merchants, seamen, and all kinds of excellent artificers, of the most refined wits, and most excellent beauties; for it is observed that in most families of England, if there be any son or daughter that excels the rest in beauty or wit, or perhaps courage or industry, or any other rare quality, London is their _north star_, and they are never at rest till they point directly thither.” A writer of a much earlier date, William Fitz-Stephen, who in 1180 prefixed an account of London to his biography of Thomas-à-Becket, has also some remarks about the situation of London, from which I will make a quotation. “On the north are cornfields, pastures, and delightful meadows, intermixed with pleasant streams, on which stands many a mill, whose clack is so grateful to the ear. Beyond them an immense forest extends itself, beautified with woods and groves, and full of the lairs and coverts of beasts and game, stags, bucks, boars, and wild bulls.” “The fields above-mentioned are by no means hungry gravel or barren sands, but may vie with the fertile plains of Asia, as capable of producing the most luxuriant crops and filling the barns of the hinds and farmers. “Round the city and towards the north arise certain excellent springs at a small distance, whose waters are sweet, salubrious, clear,” and “Whose runnels murmur o’er the shining stones.” WATER SUPPLY. This final remark of Fitz-Stephen’s leads me to make a few observations about the water supply of ancient London, which originally was abundant and excellent. It is probable that in pre-historic times the rising ground upon which the “City” is built was an island, the Thames in those days being much wider and shallower than at present. Even a writer so late as Fitz-Stephen mentions the fact that Moorfields was used for skating, and the derivation of the name “London” which finds most favour with philologists is from the Celtic _Llyn-din_, which means the Lake fortress.