A HISTORY OF LONDON which might be supposed to continue the line of the causeway found on the site of Bow Church, ran transversely over a number of unusually thick walls; and Wren's statement that it passed from one end of the town to the other has still to be verified.^"' On this subject J. R. Green has a note as follows : — That this early (Anglo-Saxon) London grew upon ground from which the Roman city- had practically disappeared may be inferred from the change in the main line of communica- tion which passed through the heart of each. This was the road that led from Newgate to the Bridge. . . . Between Budge Row and the precincts of St. Paul's all trace of it is lost. The lines of the street that ran through the area which it must have traversed, are not only not in accordance with it, but thrown diagonally across it. It is the same wherever we dig over the site of the ancient city, the remains of Roman London which we discover have little or no relation to the lines of modern times.'* An instructive parallel is afforded by Silchester, the Roman town that has now been almost completely excavated on scientific lines. Here as in London there are but the faintest traces of pre-Roman occupation by the Britons, and both sites became important junctions in the Roman period. That Silchester finally attained to little more than one-fourth the size of Roman London was no doubt due to the maritime trade of the latter, but in the early days of the Roman occupation there was probably little to choose between them ; and it is significant that, apart from children's burials, only one interment has been found within the walls of Silchester."*'^ More- over, their fate after the withdrawal of the Roman officials about 410 seems to have been the same : on neither site are there remains of the pagan Saxons, and both towns were probably deserted for a considerable period when once the barbarians had paralyzed trade and rendered a central government impossible. With the aid of the Antonine Itineraries some attempt will next be made to determine the order in which these roads were constructed. The larger question of their stages and ramifications cannot here be discussed, but an exam- ination of the London sections may throw some light on the progress of the City in the opening centuries of our era. Military reasons must be held to give the priority to the Watling Street ; and for travellers arriving at the Kentish ports the only passage inland was along the chalk belt north of the Weald. In order to pass to the front it was necessary to cross the Thames, which was already bridged in a.d. 43. The road passed to Chester, the central point of the military zone, by way of Verulam, a town that under the Romans attained the highest rank of any in the country, and was a municipium as early as A.D. 63. The military occupation of Colchester also enabled troops to be dispatched into the interior from the Gaulish ports, roads from this centre being no doubt constructed in the first century ; and it was doubtless by Old Ford and Holborn Bridge that troops passed on their way into South Wales. Besides Caerleon and Chester, Lincoln was a military centre, and the Itineraries shew that the journey north was made via Colchester. Hence there was no immediate necessity for the Ermine Street, and as the only route between Chichester and London given in the Itineraries is by way of Winchester, it is clear that neither portion of the Ermine Street existed at the time of their compilation. The date is somewhat problematic, but their name is strong '"* Black threw doubts on this theory ; Arch, xl, 57. ""• Conj. of Engl, ii (1899), I 73. ^^ A cinerary urn in Insula 19 {Arch. Ivi, 237), probably earlier than the walls. 36
