CHAPTER XV.
THE SETTLEMENT AROUND LONDON.
BEDE tells us of battles in Kent between the Jutes and the Britons during the latter part of the fifth century, and it was probably these battles that opened the way for the settlement around London. He wrote from the traditional knowledge of these events, and his statement may be accepted as evidence of a series of conflicts that must have occurred before the British people abandoned London—a distinguished city, which during the later Roman period bore the name of Augusta. There were roads into it from all directions: from Canterbury, from Pevensey, from Chichester, from Silchester and the south-west parts of Britain; from Uriconium, or Wroxeter, and the Midland district; from York and Lincoln, and from Colchester. These roads and other less important ways radiated from London like the spokes of a wheel, thus proving the importance of the Roman city. They all existed at the time of the coming of the new settlers; many of them exist to this day, and the lines of others can be traced. The Romans made them, and our Anglo-Saxon forefathers wore them down, and here and there roughly repaired them.
The earliest Saxon records supply no evidence of the city in a ruined state. On the contrary, they show its con-
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