Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/129

Rh itself. In antiquarian investigations much depends upon minute and careful observation: important conclusions result frequently from a connection of facts trivial in themselves but of importance when combined, and the record and registration of these facts can only be satisfactorily carried on under auspicious circumstances. Taking the coins of Vespasian and Domitian into consideration, we may infer that Londinium had considerably extended its bounds not long subsequently to the reign of the latter emperor; but the presence of the coin of Severus suggests a later date, did not the absence of coins from Domitian to Severus, favour the supposition that this isolated specimen may have been found on some other part of the area excavated.

Roman London thus enlarged itself by degrees from the banks of the Thames towards Moorfields, and the line of the wall east and south. The sepulchral deposits alluded to confirm its growth; others, at more remote distances, indicate posterior enlargements; while interments discovered at Holborn, Finsbury, Whitechapel, and the extensive burial-places in Spitalfields and Goodman's Fields, denote that those localities were fixed on when Londinium, in process of time, had spread over the extensive space enclosed by the wall.

The vast moor and marsh lands on the north side of Londinium were unquestionably, by draining and embanking, rendered in part suitable for buildings, particularly the enclosed portion; that beyond the wall, probably, retained until the last century much of its original character. Opposite Finsbury Circus, at the depth of nineteen feet, a well-turned Roman arch was discovered, at the entrance of which, on the Finsbury side, were iron bars placed apparently to restrain the sedge and weeds from choking the passage. In Prince's-street, on the west side of the Bank, in Lothbury, Token-house Yard, and the adjoining parts, the natural boggy sod descends to a great depth, but the superficial strata contain the remains of houses and their pavements. In many parts of this district wooden piles were driven through the unstable foundations into the natural gravel to form a solid substructure.

The mode of obtaining a sure foundation by means of piling, was as general on the bank of the river as in the marshy district above noticed. It was observed throughout Thames-street and Tower-street, and also on the Southwark side of the river. In the last-mentioned locality, when excavations