The Towns of Roman BritainBevan, J. O. (James Oliver)
History
The Towns of Roman Britain
Bevan, J. O. (James Oliver)
Cities and towns -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- Antiquities, Roman
Not long ago, while the buildings 3-6 King William Street were being
demolished, another series of five large Roman pits was uncovered.
From the fragments obtained therefrom nine Samian vessels of the
first century have been pieced together, and are now in the Guildhall
Museum. These include a decorated vessel, finer than any previously
found in London, and two specimens of a shape unknown hitherto in
England. A lamp, two coins, and other objects of pottery and bronze
were also obtained from this source.[7]
[Footnote 7: Besant's _London_ and his _Westminster_ convey a
fascinating account of what was a labour of love on the part of the
author to compile. All sorts of unexpected pleasures await the
wanderer in London's highways and byeways. One of these may be
noticed in respect of the Roman bath in the Strand. Turning down
Strand Lane (a narrow passage between King's College and Surrey
Street), a few yards bring one to the baths. The lane itself is as
ancient as anything in London, inasmuch as it must have been in very
early times a path by the side of the stream fed by the bath spring,
and perhaps by the Holy Well, which afterwards gave its name to the
notorious Holywell Street, this stream finally flowing into the
Thames.]
It is a moot point whether the Saxon migration along the Thames
waterway was checked by the presence of London, which remained a city
stronghold since Roman times, but it is evident that a gap was made
in the history of the city just after the departure of the Romans,
and the theory of continuous occupation can hardly be maintained in
face of the fact that the mediaeval City streets in no case follow
the Roman roads traces of which lie beneath the mediaeval houses.
LYMPNE, or _Lemanae_.--Pevensey District, Anderida.
It is considered that Reculver was the earliest Roman coast-fortress
in Kent, that Richborough was founded somewhat later, and that Lympne
and Pevensey constituted the latest stations; also, that (probably
even before the time of Constantine) a division of the Romano-British
fleet was stationed at Lympne and a series of buildings erected by
their crews. When Romney Marshes were covered by an inland sea, and
many streams drained this eastern side of the Andred Forest, the
Romans established the military station Lemanae, at the estuary of
the chief of those streams, and defended it by the castrum, the ruins
of which are now known as Stutfall Castle. Some of the stones of this
castrum were used by Archbishop Lanfranc in the construction of a
church at Lympne.
MALDON, Essex.--Situated on an acclivity rising from the south side
of the Blackwater--44 miles E.N.E. of London, and 16 S.W. from
Colchester or Camulodunum, with which it has sometimes been
identified, or rather, confounded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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