A HISTORY OF LONDON masonry was found incorporated in the foundations of the later City gate, the south-eastern corner of which just covered it. The Roman work consisted of large blocks of oolite about 13 in. high, closely resembling Barnack rag- stone, which had formed part of a plinth running from the line of the road- way for a length of 17 ft. to the south, and then turning at right angles towards the line of the City wall, from the inner face of which it projected about 7 ft. These blocks were bedded in pink mortar and fastened at the joints with iron clamps fixed in lead, and a broad chamfer ran along the east face and turned on the angle stone, where it ceased. They lay at a depth of 6 ft. 6 in. below the pavement level of Newgate Street, resting on a bed of mortar and ragstone about 2 ft. thick, below which came a layer of puddled clay and ragstone fragments no less than 4 ft. 10 in. in thickness, resting on the gravel (Fig. 21). Mr. Norman shows that these remains, in conjunction with those noted on the north side of the street, furnish clear evidence of a gate on this site dating from the Roman period, whose total width, as represented by the frag- ments discovered, would be about 98 ft. On either side there was a square guard chamber, about 30 ft. wide, between which there may have been two passages, and the remains above described would form the south-east angle of the southern guard-chamber. An arrangement on this plan is to be found in one of the gates of Amboglana," but at Newgate the gate projected beyond the face of the wall, while at Amboglana it was Hush with it, a difference pointing to a later age for the London gate (see p. 79). Much of the wall which had escaped destruction when Newgate Prison was reconstructed in 1857 was removed at this time, and the further portions brought to light have been admirably described by Mr. Norman in the paper already quoted (Plan C, 50), For a distance of about 100 ft. to the south of the gate the wall had been previously removed, but beyond this it remained for a length of some 75 ft., and excavation revealed a great mass of masonry about I oft. thick at the base, and 8 ft. 6 in. at the level of the plinth, and 13 ft. in height, of which 8|ft. above the plinth was undoubtedly Roman work. The whole formed an imposing sight which created considerable interest at the time, and provided an excellent opportunity of studying the construction of the wall, a perfect section being obtained as well as both faces. The usual puddling of clay was found beneath it, at a depth of about 16 ft. below the level of Newgate Street ; at the south end fragments of ragstone had been used in place of fiints, as has already been noted elsewhere. Upon this came a somewhat greater amount of ragstone substructure than is usually found. Just to the north of Newgate, on the site of Christ's Hospital, there was only about i ft. of substructure, while at the north end of the piece of wall under notice it was 2 ft. 10 in., and at the south end 3 ft. 4 in. This is due to the slope of the ground, which at the present time falls some I oft. from Newgate to Ludgate, after which it drops rapidly to the Thames (Fig. 22, Nos. 8, 10, 11). Above this the wall was raised, much in the regular manner, having the red sandstone plinth on the outer face and the corresponding three tiles on the inner, with facing stones and bonding courses, of which two rows survived, the upper row in one part being of a " Soc. yintij. NcKcastk-on-Tyne, 6 Nov. 1850. 66
