Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/135

 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. 107 from oiiM. The Daiiiali borough hail more than one predecessor. The height on which it stands, the promontory of Liiicohi, is part of that long lino of low hills, stretching through a large part of Central and Eastern England, which seems like a feeble rival of the loftier ranges of the West. At this point the range is broken by a depression which, if it were worthy of the name, might pa.ss as the valley of the Witlum. Thus is funned the promontory of Lincoln, looking down upon the river to the south of it. Vale and ridge alike are traversed by tho.se great roails which abide as the noblest relics of the days of Roman dominion. The steep is climbed by the united line of the Ermine Street and the Fosse Way, which last a:;ain diverged from the ea.-<tern gate of the Roman city. I5ut the Roman was not the first to occupy the spot. His road, after climbing the hill, cuts through an earlier town to the north of the present city, of which the dyke and foss are still easy to be seen. The road itself, the Ermine Street, notwithstanding all the centuries which have passed since it was first traced out and paved, is that distinguished from a yet older track by the name of the New Street. And the New Street leads to the New Port, the Roman arch of massive stones which still remains the entrance to the city from the north. Tlie Roman town, the colony of Lindum, arose to the south of this more ancient site, on the very brow of the hill. Fragments of the wall still remain, and the site of the southern gate is still marked at a point but a little way down the steep descent. In the later days of Roman occupation a fortified suburb seems to have spread itself down the slopes of the hill from the southern gate to the banks of the Witham. The Danish town still occupied the Roman site, gathering round at least two churches whoso names have been preserved. An earlier St. Mary's seems to have already occupied some small portion of the site of the jirescnt Minster, and the memory of Paulinus, the apostle of Lindesey no less than of Deira, was cheri.shed in a church whose jiresent mean representiitive preserves a trace of the ancient dedication in its corrupted name of St. Paul. Here then on its hill-toit, with the Witham, then an important highway of merchandize, at its feet, dwelled the rich and proud common- wealth which, holding such a position, might have been expected to withstand the invader as manfully as Domfront, Le Mans, or Mayence.''