Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/133

Rh original uses. The plan of modern London gives us little or no assistance in forming a notion of that of the Roman town; for in many instances streets, which during centuries have retained their present course, cover the foundations of dwelling-houses, and thus prove the non-existence of Roman roads or streets in such sites.

Recent discoveries, however, while they leave us in doubt of the sites of public edifices, and of the arrangements of streets, reveal, by an abundance of scattered facts, the populousness of the place, and the comforts and luxuries of its inhabitants. At depths varying from ten to twenty feet, we notice throughout the city the remains of houses, and of a variety of domestic utensils. Some of the houses, as may be expected, exhibit evidences of the superior rank or wealth of their owners in the rich tessellated pavements of their apartments. The more remarkable of these were found in Bartholomew-lane, connected probably with that discovered on the site of the Bank of England, in Paternoster-row, in Crosby-square, in Bush-lane, in Lad-lane and Wood-street, and on the site of the Hall of Commerce in Threadneedle-street, but all were cut to pieces and destroyed, with the exception of the last, which having become private property, met a more worthy fate, and is deposited in the British Museum, as an example of one of the most useful and elegant of the ancient arts, by the good taste and public spirit of its conservator.

The absence of inscribed stones is remarkable, and only to be accounted for upon the supposition of their having been broken up in past times for building materials. Two only have been discovered, both sepulchral; the one, inscribed to a speculator of the second legion, was found imbedded in a wall of the Old Blackfriars' Monastery; the other, in memory of Grata, the daughter of Dagobitus, was discovered at London Wall, Moorfields. Some stamped tiles are interesting; as affording perhaps the earliest instances of an abbreviation of the word Londinium. They read |$\overline$| and |$\overline$|, and may mean Probatum Londinii, proved (of the proper quality) at London; or Prima (cohors) BRitonum LONdinii, the first (cohort) of the Britons at London.

The fictile urns and vessels, in an endless variety of shape and pattern, contribute evidence of domestic comfort, and of