Another powerful inducement existed in this locality to fix the wandering footsteps of the emigrant. Two roads made through the forest by the skill of the previous conquerors of the country, united in this spot; and remained to show the uncultivated Saxon, what genius and perseverance could effect. These having served the purpose of a military way to conduct the Roman Legions from south to north, and from east to west, were now ready to be used in aid of civilized life. And it is scarcely conceivable that a spot so desirable could have remained long unoccupied by the seekers of a home. This locality is the present site of Paddington by whatever name it was then called. And it was, in all probability, at a very early period of our history occupied by the Saxon settler. The question whether those who settled here were conveyed with the soil to some spiritual, or temporal, lord, previous to, or immediately subsequent to, the Norman conquest, cannot be so satisfactorily determined. Traditions are at variance; documents are not trustworthy; and names have been altered; so that two opinions may be entertained about the things described even in the instruments which exist. There is, however, one general rule which will assist us in coming to a correct decision as to the boundaries we find laid down. When the science of making and interpreting artificial signs had acquired all the potency of a black art; when the acquisition of this art was strictly guarded by all the rules of a craft; and when this art was used to describe a title to lands, and to define the extent of those lands, it still remained necessary, for the safety of those who held this _book-land_, that the natural signs should be used, if any knowledge of these things was to be preserved by the people, who were carefully excluded from any dealings with so subtile an agency as the lawyer’s quill. And I think we may safely conclude that the most prominent and permanent objects, natural or artificial, would be invariably chosen to point out the bounds of original settlement, when the time had come to render land marks necessary. We might expect, therefore, to find that the Westminster monks, in carving out for themselves a comfortable and compact estate, would choose for its boundaries the most prominent and permanent objects in the neighbourhood. And in Edgar’s first Charter—_that dated six years before Edgar was King_—we do find, with some additions, the Thames chosen for the southern boundary; the Roman road for the northern; the Fleete for the eastern; and the Tybourn for the western. And if we take the largest stream between the Fleete and the Brent to have been the Tybourn, we can readily explain how the convent claimed a manor in Chelsea; and we can clearly understand, too, how the Norman monks read this Saxon Charter so as to make it include the manor of Paddington—as that portion of land, bounded by the Roman roads, and the bourn, was at one time called.