A HISTORY OF LONDON above this point to a height of upwards of 1 6 ft. appeared also to be of Roman construction. But it was mostly destroyed, and at the rebuilding all traces of the old work were hidden from view. A little further to the north-west an important bastion was discovered in 1876, which has been elaborately described by J. E. Price ^^ (Plan C, 23). It was of the usual rounded form, about 20 ft. in diameter and projecting 15 ft. from the wall, below the plinth of which its base was carried about 4 ft. A length of about 60 ft. of the wall was disclosed at the time, the base of which was from 10 to 12 ft. below the present roadway, with the usual clay and flint bed resting on the London clay. The base of the bastion had been laid on a surface prepared by compressing masses of chalk into the clay for a thickness of about 3 in. The lower part was composed of large pieces of oolite and green sandstone, chiefly taken from older buildings. These were filled in and faced with Kentish rag, and this was the material mainly employed in the upper part, a solid mass rising to a height of about 10 ft. A large number of the architectural fragments were carved and moulded, and they were all of the Roman period. There were also many pieces of monuments, some of a remarkably good style of art, though others were crude and defaced (Figs. 17 and 41). Tiles were found, but mostly in the shape of fragments worked in at random with the stones, together with masses of opus sigm'num, brought from elsewhere and thrown in as building material.*^ Price's account is marred by a strong desire to show that the bastion was constructed in the Middle Ages, and probably not before the i 3th cen- tury; but he was unable to produce any object later than the Roman period in support of his view. He refers indeed to a piece of green glazed pottery as coming from under the base, but admits that the evidence is indecisive. As has been already stated, more recent investigations have placed it beyond doubt that some at least of the bastions, although later than the wall, were yet built during the Roman period.'^ Price identifies this bastion with the one shown on Agas's map adjoining the Papey, but in this he is evidently in error, as that is clearly the one at Goring Street (Castle Street). Neither the bastion at Camomile Street nor that at No. 31 Houndsditch appears on the old maps. From about this point the wall deflects somewhat to the west and con- tinues thus till it reaches Bishopsgate. There has been considerable question as to when a gate was first built here, and although no very definite remains have been found, some indications observed during the recent operations for telephone mains are of interest. At the junction of Wormwood Street and Bishopsgate Street, from 15 ft. to 20 ft. from the inside of the wall, a mass of rubble masonry was found resting at about a depth of 10 ft. on a bed of puddled clay and flint, and the latter was found extending over the whole space opened by the manhole. '^ As the bed of clay and flint is only found in association with the City wall, it seems highly probable that the remains were those of a Roman gate which occupied the site (Plan C, 24). From Bishopsgate the wall turns almost due west, passing under the houses on the north side of Wormwood Street (Plan C, 25). It has been cut through ^ Bastion of London IV all, 1880. " Many of these interesting and valuable remains were until recently to be seen in the Guildhall Museum, but unfortunately most of them are now stored out of sight. '« See above, p. 48. ^ Arck. Ix, 1 86. 56
