Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/127

Rh was discovered, the workmen should have been prohibited from breaking it up until at least drawings had been made. In many instances, at a trifling expense, the various rooms of a Roman building might have been opened, and plans and drawings made; the direction, width, and peculiarities of buildings recorded; and moreover and chiefly, as it is not to be expected that people, whose habits and pursuits do not qualify them to appreciate the use and value of works of ancient art, should of themselves promote antiquarian research, it is desirable that competent persons, willing to devote their time to investigations having a public and general object in view, should be at least permitted to do their best, free from hindrance and annoyance.

It would appear that the first settlement of the Romans was made on the banks of the Thames, about the centre of the present city. Whether they fixed on the spot from its natural advantages, or because the Britons had already established there a town as a medium of continental traffic, it is impossible to say; we have met with no remains indicative of a British town, nor works of art anterior to the Roman epoch.

The line of the Roman wall is well known, stretching from the Tower through the Minories to Aldgate, Houndsditch, Bishopsgate, along London Wall to Fore-street, through Cripplegate church-yard, thence between Monkwell-street and Castle-street to Aldersgate, through Christ's Hospital to Newgate and Ludgate towards the Thames. The erection of this wall was probably a work of the latter days of the Romano-British period. We refer to other evidence to shew that originally the bounds of the Roman town must have been confined within narrow compass on the rising ground bordering the river.

It is well known that respect for decency and regard for human health restrained the Romans from mixing up together the living and the dead. The offensive and pernicious modern practice of interring the dead within towns, contiguous to the abodes of the living, was never tolerated by the Romans, who made its prohibition effectual by legislative enactment. We find this custom adhered to in the provinces, and the burial-places belonging to most of their stations and towns in Britain have been discovered at a considerable distance from the habitations.

In various central parts of the city, imbedded in the