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The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 3 (of 3): Everlasting Calerdar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the AlmanacHone, William

History

The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 3 (of 3): Everlasting Calerdar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac

Name: The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 3 (of 3): Everlasting Calerdar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac
Author: Hone, William

Hone, William

Days; Great Britain -- Social life and customs

During the digging of Fleet-ditch, in 1676, with a view to its
improvement after the Fire of London, between the Fleet-prison and
Holborn-bridge, at the depth of fifteen feet, several Roman utensils
were discovered; and, a little lower, a great quantity of Roman coins,
of silver, copper, brass, and various other metals, but none of gold;
and at Holborn-bridge, two brass lares, or household gods, of the
Romans, about four inches in length, were dug out; one a Ceres, and the
other a Bacchus. The great quantity of coins, induces a presumption that
they were thrown into this river by the Roman inhabitants of the city,
on the entry of Boadicea, with her army of enraged Britons, who
slaughtered their conquerors, without distinction of age or sex. Here
also were found arrow-heads, spur-rowels of a hand’s breadth, keys,
daggers, scales, seals with the proprietors’ names in Saxon characters,
ship counters with Saxon characters, and a considerable number of
medals, crosses, and crucifixes, of a more recent age.[26]

Sometime before the year 1714, Mr. John Conyers, an apothecary in
Fleet-street, who made it his chief business to collect antiquities,
which about that time were daily found in and about London, as he was
digging in a field near the Fleet not far from Battle-bridge, discovered
the body of an elephant, conjectured to have been killed there, by the
Britons, in fight with the Romans; for, not far from the spot, was found
an ancient British spear, the head of flint fastened into a shaft of
good length.[27] From this elephant, the public-house near the spot
where it was discovered, called the Elephant and Castle, derives its
sign.

There are no memorials of the extent to which the river Fleet was
anciently navigable, though, according to tradition, an anchor was found
in it as high up as the Elephant and Castle, which is immediately
opposite Pancras workhouse, and at the corner of the road leading from
thence to Kentish-town. Until within these few years, it gave motion to
flour and flatting mills at the back of Field-lane, near Holborn.[28]

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