existed along the actual line of road."[158] Roach Smith also testifies that no wall has been found crossing Gracechurch Street, "a fact that would support the opinion of its occupying the route of one of the Roman roads."[159] The idea of J. R. Green, that the north and south street was considerably to the east of the present line, was probably founded on Stow's mistaken view that the bridge was of old far to the east. Again, for the two great longitudinal ways through the city we have evidence. In forming the entrance into the city from New London Bridge a section was made of the ground north of Thames Street, and three ancient lines of embankment were found, by which ground was by degrees regained from the Thames. One of these was formed of squared oaks. As the excavation came to Eastcheap it crossed a raised bank of gravel 6 feet deep and 18 wide, the crest of which was 5 feet under the present surface; it ran in the direction of London Stone. On reaching the north-east corner of Eastcheap the foundations of a Roman building were found, and here, having reached the line of Gracechurch Street, the discoveries ended.[160] Roach Smith speaks of walls having been found in Eastcheap and Little Eastcheap, but Cannon Street, like Gracechurch Street, was free from them. It has been conjectured that Cheapside was not a street, that it was a muddy marsh, an open space for market booths, and that a stream ran from it into Walbrook, etc.[161] Two deeds, however, given in Dugdale under Barnstaple, record the gift of a new house and land in "_Foro_" or "_Magno Vico Londoniæ quam habuit Odone Bajocensi_" by William Gifford, Bishop of Winchester, to S. Martin Paris, 1110-15, and this reference to the property of Odo of Bayeux carries Cheapside right back to Conquest days. It is not unlikely, indeed, that the east end of the "Great Street" was the site of the Roman Forum or part of it. The "Forum" of Canterbury is mentioned in 762.[162] Although the word Forum doubtless stands only for the Saxon market-place, it was the proper place of assembly. According to the _Acta Stephani_ the Empress Maud was acclaimed Lady of England in the Forum of Winchester. There is no doubt Cheap was the Saxon High Street and the official meeting-place of the citizens from the earliest days of the English settlement. Early in the twelfth century Thomas à Becket was born in his father's house in Cheap, on a site we can still identify, and Eudo, Dapifer to the Conqueror, also appears to have had a stone house in West Cheap, by Newchurch.