A HISTORY OF LONDON fruTiiSver/ie yi •ll. 'ecucn oj Id KOADMiiartn EASTCHEAP. sAewina the relaHvf position, of method of construction (Fig. 1 1). It was 8 ft. narrower than Watling Street as discovered in Edgware Road, and lacked the layer of flints that distin- guished the military roads ; and it is this that also negatives the idea of Old Street being the original Roman road into Essex. Excavations for sewers near Goswell Road revealed six road-levels," the lowest being nearly 1 1 ft. down and containing Roman coins just below its hardened surface : this, like the road above it, which also contained Roman coins, seems therefore to have been a gravel road like those found at Caerwent,"^ and may be accounted for in the following way. As we have seen, the main road from Essex crossed the ^ Lea at Old Ford and pointed straight to Hol- born Bridge. This line passed Finsbury Square and the Artillery ground, for- merly part of Bunhill Fields, and there is reason to suppose that the ground here was firm when the highway was constructed. When the obstruction of the Walbrook by the Wall led to the formation of a marsh (Moorfields), the road would be diverted and the remains in Old Street probably represent the de- tour made to the north in order to avoid the marsh. The question might have been decided one way or the other if the coins dis- covered had been fully described, or if several burials found in Moorfields had been more precisely located."' According to Wren, Omvtl 20 /i£t detp itni/tr uAieA 6lue e^^ » s a It mi: Lciyttudtrud Seelian cf ifu f^hii C A, B, Frontage line of modern houses ; C, Roman wall supporting road ; D, D, Layers of Roman tile ; E, E, Kentish ragstone Fig. II a causeway found on the site of Bow Church, Cheap- side, ran the whole length of the town, and is said to have been traced in Birchin Lane,"' but it seems more probable that its course was from Newgate across the Walbrook by the bridge discovered at Bucklersbury. Its destination will perhaps remain a mystery, but it is unlikely to have been an original Roman highway through London, and was perhaps built after the upper Walbrook had become marshy. ^^Lond. and Midd. Anh. Soc. Trans, iii, 563. "^JrcA. Iviii, 146 ; lix, 123. "'For instance, the cist-burial of a child, with jewellery and a gold coin of Salonina, wife of Gallienus ( 253-68 ) : British Museum. The interment would have been made before Moorfields became a swamp, and consequently before the building of the Wall. Cinerary urn in Guildhall Museum (Cat. 85, 113). '" Gent. Mag. i 842, i, 269, but see Arch, xl, 57. 38
