Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Miscellaneous Observations And Reflections Made In A Tour Through London,
all the intelligence I could gain , was , " It is a place of rest for the porters' burden . " I was utterly at a loss , while I attentivel y examined this antique , how to face that world , who considered it beneath their notice ; and , instead of considering me in the same li ght which I wished , might ridicule me for my attention . When a man looks ridiculous in his own eyes , it is no wonder he looks so in those of others . *
This stone appears of a marble texture ; near four feet hi gh , two broad , and one thick . An ornament at the top is broken off . In the front is an oval aperture , or recess , two feet long ; at the bottom of which is a broken fragment , which has supported , perhaps , an urn , or image , expressive of the ori ginal design . Time seems to have destroyed the lower part of the ovaland art has supplied the place
, with a patch . Through this dark stone , perhaps , we shall see something of London , in the time of the Britons , and more in that of the Romans . Most writers consider London . as a city founded by the Romans , because it is scarcely mentioned by Caesar , Tacitus , " & c . But we may observe , they did not build so much , as improve cities . There
is no more reason to expect a description of London- from Cassar , than any other place . Many of the towns , nay , I am persuaded , a great number of our villages , were in being in the time of the Britons . This may be easily inferred , from a survey of their situation , their roads , pieces of antiquity often discovered , and by tradition . We know some of them do not vary ten houses in five hundred
3-ears . If London did not take its rise from the Britons , it could not have arisen to the eminence it did , so early under the Roman power . We are told , the ancient boundaries' of London were , W ' albrook , on the east , Fleet-ditch , on the west , ( both which proceeded from a morass on the north ) and the Thames on the south ; a situation admirably fortified by nature . This we must consider a city of the ancient Britons .
The prior antiquity of this part of London will appear , by surveying the ground on which St . Paul ' s was elected ; upon an eminence , between two rivers , then of consequence . It is reasonable to suppose the mother church was first built upon this favourable spot , where it continues to the present day , and the inhabitants would naturally surround it . It was dedicated to Diana , long before the introduction of Christianity , which happened in the third century ;
therefore , it is probable , this was the mother church during many of the British ages . It is no wonder , a place , thus secured by nature , and adapted for commerce , should increase its inhabitants by attraction . Extension was the consequence ; and gradual possession was taken of the rising grounds towards the east , now Cornhill .
Nature seemed as friendly in the security of this extended boundary , as in the more contracted : for we find this enlarged space secured by a morass , east of the Tower , ' which extended from the Thames to Houns ' ditch ; then to Moorfields , passing between Cheap-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Miscellaneous Observations And Reflections Made In A Tour Through London,
all the intelligence I could gain , was , " It is a place of rest for the porters' burden . " I was utterly at a loss , while I attentivel y examined this antique , how to face that world , who considered it beneath their notice ; and , instead of considering me in the same li ght which I wished , might ridicule me for my attention . When a man looks ridiculous in his own eyes , it is no wonder he looks so in those of others . *
This stone appears of a marble texture ; near four feet hi gh , two broad , and one thick . An ornament at the top is broken off . In the front is an oval aperture , or recess , two feet long ; at the bottom of which is a broken fragment , which has supported , perhaps , an urn , or image , expressive of the ori ginal design . Time seems to have destroyed the lower part of the ovaland art has supplied the place
, with a patch . Through this dark stone , perhaps , we shall see something of London , in the time of the Britons , and more in that of the Romans . Most writers consider London . as a city founded by the Romans , because it is scarcely mentioned by Caesar , Tacitus , " & c . But we may observe , they did not build so much , as improve cities . There
is no more reason to expect a description of London- from Cassar , than any other place . Many of the towns , nay , I am persuaded , a great number of our villages , were in being in the time of the Britons . This may be easily inferred , from a survey of their situation , their roads , pieces of antiquity often discovered , and by tradition . We know some of them do not vary ten houses in five hundred
3-ears . If London did not take its rise from the Britons , it could not have arisen to the eminence it did , so early under the Roman power . We are told , the ancient boundaries' of London were , W ' albrook , on the east , Fleet-ditch , on the west , ( both which proceeded from a morass on the north ) and the Thames on the south ; a situation admirably fortified by nature . This we must consider a city of the ancient Britons .
The prior antiquity of this part of London will appear , by surveying the ground on which St . Paul ' s was elected ; upon an eminence , between two rivers , then of consequence . It is reasonable to suppose the mother church was first built upon this favourable spot , where it continues to the present day , and the inhabitants would naturally surround it . It was dedicated to Diana , long before the introduction of Christianity , which happened in the third century ;
therefore , it is probable , this was the mother church during many of the British ages . It is no wonder , a place , thus secured by nature , and adapted for commerce , should increase its inhabitants by attraction . Extension was the consequence ; and gradual possession was taken of the rising grounds towards the east , now Cornhill .
Nature seemed as friendly in the security of this extended boundary , as in the more contracted : for we find this enlarged space secured by a morass , east of the Tower , ' which extended from the Thames to Houns ' ditch ; then to Moorfields , passing between Cheap-