It will not be improper here to observe, that a dispute has arisen about the situation of this city in these early times; the Rev. and learned Dr. Gale, Dean of York, and Mr. Salmon, having offered many arguments to prove that it was a Roman station erected in St. George’s Fields, to secure their conquests on that side the river, before they reduced the Trinobantines; particularly from the great quantities of Roman antiquities found in St. George’s Fields; from the name of Cyningston, or Kennington, which Dr. Gale supposes was an ancient town and castle belonging to the Kings of England, and therefore probably a Roman station, because the Saxons generally used to settle in such places; and from the authority of Ptolemy, who has placed London on the south side of the Thames. In answer to these arguments, it has been very justly observed by Mr. Maitland, that the Romans were too wise to make use of so noisome and unhealthful a place for a station, as St. George’s Fields then was, from their being overflowed by every spring tide; as they must have been before the river was confined by artificial banks, and before the building of London bridge, where, upon an ordinary spring tide, the water rises upwards of nineteen inches higher on the east side than on the west: that, if the antiquities discovered are any proof, above twenty times the quantity of Roman antiquities have been found on the north side of the river. With respect to the argument produced from the name of Kennington, the learned Mr. Woodward observes, that the Kings of England were, from our oldest notices of things, intitled to all such lands as were gained from the sea, or from such rivers as ebbed and flowed; and that with respect to the authority of Ptolemy, he had not only misplaced several other towns in Britain, but in countries much nearer to him. The time when the city wall was first erected, is very uncertain, some authors ascribing this work to Constantine the Great, and others to his mother Helena; but Mr. Maitland brings several arguments to prove, that it was erected by Valentinian, about the year 368, and that it entirely surrounded the city, to secure it from being invaded by water as well as by land. This wall was composed alternately of layers of flat Roman brick, and rag stones, and had many lofty towers. Those on the land side were fifteen in number. The remains of one of these is still to be seen in Shoemaker row, fronting the passage into Duke’s Place; and there is another a little nearer Aldgate, twenty-one feet high. From the remains of the Roman work in the city wall, Mr. Maitland supposes, that, at the time of its erection, it was twenty-two feet in height, and that of the towers about forty feet. See LONDON WALL.