repaired, and frequently, too, broken down--as when Anlaf, the Dane, sailed up the Thames with his fleet in 993--was finally removed in favour of the nineteen arches and a drawbridge, which subsisted until 1831. (The site of the Roman Bridge is discussed in a paper on "Recent Discoveries in Roman London," in volume lx. of _Archaelogia_.) [Illustration: THE GATES OF THE CITY: ALDERSGATE AND BRIDGEGATE.] Such, then, was Roman London during the greater part of the Roman occupation of Britain--as it is still, a city of suburbs. Of the date of the building of the wall we have no certainty. A recent writer finds fault with my cautious statement in _Historic London_ that "in 350 London had no wall," and would substitute 360. The wall was certainly built about that time or a little later, but may have been begun long before. It is evident that such a piece of work was not completed in a single year, even under the Roman Emperors. Perhaps--it is too easy to form theories--Constantine (Stow says _Helena_) projected it and left it to be finished by his successors. It had been completed by the reign of Theodosius, about A.D. 368. The course of the new wall, according to Stow, was from the Tower to Aldgate, thence to Bishopsgate, and from Bishopsgate to Aldersgate, with a postern at Cripplegate. Next came Newgate, and Ludgate was towards the Fleet--the wall ending at the Thames. The whole length was two miles and a half and 608 feet. Stow did not know that several of the gates he named--Aldgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, and Ludgate--were not Roman. Nor did he know that Ludgate means a postern, and Crepulgeat a covered way, both these gates being probably of late construction, though possibly of the time of Alfred. The exact site of the wall and the two landward gates seems to be indicated by the old ward boundaries, but modern investigators have neglected them. There was another Roman settlement, namely, at Westminster, where the abbey stands on the site of some older buildings. Roman concrete forms the foundation of the older part of the church and the dark cloisters. The pavement of a dwelling was found under the nave, and a sarcophagus, bearing a rudely carved cross, showed that the town was not walled. The Romans possibly built here on account of the ford, and we may be sure that at times, when the only bridge was under repair or unfinished, the crossing here for the ancient road, which the Saxons named the Watling Street, was found convenient. There is mention of the buildings on Thorney in a charter at the British Museum (Kemble, D.L.V.), apparently a thirteenth century forgery, but of interest as showing that a tradition survived. King Eadgar is made to say that a temple of abomination had been destroyed to make way for the church of St. Peter. Such a temple, if one existed, was more probably Saxon than Roman.