ROMANO-BRITISH LONDON it has not always been in its present position. In 1742 it was transferred from the middle of the street, 35ft. to the south-west, to the kerb on the north side, and in 1798 placed in the church wall, where it was protected by a grill in 1869.^^^ It has always been regarded as of monumental interest, and may well be the remains of a Roman mile-stone or other landmark con- nected with the road that seems to have passed this spot."^ The massive wall observed by Roach Smith crossing Laurence Pountney Lane near the churchyard ^" may have been built to sustain the highway or the slope ; and precisely on this line, south of the Monument and behind some warehouses in Pudding Lane, have been discovered old walls built on a hard concrete foundation.^^* An ' aqueduct ' of Roman tiles passed below to the river, and the remains were supposed to belong to 'some baths of importance,' but their position suggests a supporting wall for the Roman road, like those found during excavations for the northern approach to the present London Bridge. "^ The line suggested is further confirmed by discoveries made when an area south of Thames Street was cleared in 18 13 for the erection of the Custom House. Besides three distinct lines of wooden embankments, there was found a wall of chalk-rubble faced with Purbeck stone running east-and- west at a distance of 50 ft. from the outer edge of the wharf wall ; but there was not a trace of any important structure met with in the whole area.* The road to the Roman wharves that probably existed here would pass along the south front of the house discovered (and in part still preserved) on the site of the Coal Exchange. Recent excavations at Newgate have shown that there was a Roman gateway across the west end of Newgate Street, and it was evidently through this that our road passed to join the main road from Essex, both crossing the Fleet by the same bridge.'" The mistake has all along been in supposing that London of the first century was important enough to divert a Roman main road ; '^^ and the onus of proof is surely on those who would impair the splendid directness of the Roman system. Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to trace the main lines of Roman London in the modern tangle of streets in the City, but what is on the surface seems quite independent of what is about 12 ft. below it. Thus, for example, there may well have been a secondary road from Deptford to London Bridge in Roman times, but that such a road did not coincide with Borough High Street has been shown by excavation, a tessel- lated pavement having been found in place of a highway."' Cornhill, again, '" J. E. Price, Descr. Rom. Tessel. Pavement in Buckkrsbury, 63. '" When excavations were in progress for the South-Eastern Railway station, Roach Smith noticed a wall that seemed to run under the footway from the top end of Bush Lane {Arch. xxix. 157), but in the same paper states that the usual indications of Roman buildings were absent in Cannon Street (p. 1 54). Can this wall have been a containing wall of the road, as noticed in Edgware Road and Eastcheap i '" Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, ii, 345. "* Gent. Mag. 1834, i, 95 ; similar discovery on adjoining site in 1880 {Anticjuary, ii, 222). ^'^ Arch, xxxiii, 103, and xxv, 602 ; Wm. Herbert, History of St. Michael's, 21 ; Gent. Mag. 1833, ii, 422. "° Tite, Cat. Roy. Exchange, xxlii, quoting David Laing, Description o/Netv Custom House, 5, 6. '" Watling Street (so-called) was found in Holborn, pointing directly to Newgate, in digging for the foundations of Holborn I3ridge {Gent. Mag. 1750, 592). Sir Wm. Tite {Arch, xxxvi, 208) and Arthur Taylor {Arch, xxxiii, 102) agreed, however, that the importance of Roman London had been exaggerated. "' Arch, xxiv, 198 (Kempe) ; cf. Gent. Mag. 1842, i, 269 ; Arch.TiTi, 149. 35
