Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/45

 ii s. x. JULY 11, i9i4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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living organism at every stage of its exhausting life." " Neither monarch nor noble has had a hand in its making." Whatever the future may bring, London, the author predicts, " will be the centre, as she has been the centre all these cen- turies, of the new institutions which will come into existence. It will not be a small uncared-for London, not a London shrinking within its walls, and commanding nothing but the fragments of its former greatness the greatness that was London. She will be a great London with a territorium stretching from the Thames to the sea [we hope not], endowed with powers of self-government within the empire to which she belongs."

There are twenty-four illustrations. We much wish that the compiling of the Index had been more thorough.

Mr. Ditchfield, in a series of pleasant rambles, takes us through the quaint streets of the City, and points out the treasures of beauty and antiquity that still survive. The wanderings do not extend far beyond the demesne of the Cor- poration, and most of the illustrations (114 in number) by Mr. E. L. W T ratten have been sketched within the area of the City. The con- stant references made in our pages to vanishing London show how rapidly old landmarks are disappearing, and we are grateful to Mr. Ditchfield for these descriptions and sketches of places, some of which will in course of time become mere matters of history.

The author begins with a quest for the earliest relics to be found of London civilization. He does not concern himself about Celtic London, but contents himself with searching for Roman London, the first object looked for being the Roman wall. The survey is begun at the Tower, where among the remains of the Wardrobe Tower, close to the White Tower, there is a portion with some mediaeval building attached to it. This was long concealed by modern brick- work, and eventually it was found that the wall had continued further south. " From the Tower it ran northwards across the moat, through Tower Hill (though no signs appear above the ground) to Trinity Place, where we see a large portion from the level of the street. It has been repaired, and a roof has been placed over the top to preserve it." Northwards, a considerable portion of the wall is to be found in Barber's Bonded Warehouses, Cooper's Row. Mr. Ditch- field was permitted to examine this, which forms part of the eastern wall of the great warehouse and vaults. "Its height here is 35 ft., and we climb stairs and descend into cellars, and inspect each part of this magnificent stretch of 1 12 ft. ' In the basement it is 8 ft. thick, and entirely Roman. " That part which is displayed on the ground and upper floors is mediseval, and you can see the rampart, along which the guard walked, protected by a bulwark." In Crutched Friars, No. 1 has been named " Roman Wall House," where a perfect piece of the wall was discovered which forms the foundation of the neighbouring houses. Mr. Ditchfield then traces the wall to the site of Christ's Hospital, where, during the erection of the new Post Office, a fine part of the wall was discovered beneath the ground. Steps have been made to lead to it, so as to facilitate inspection of this piece. The wall proceeds southwards, "run- ning probably through Printing House Square towards the river."

Wo must leave the author's readers to ramble with him through the pre-Reformation churches, the churches built by Wren, the Inns of Court, the City Palaces, and the Halls of the Companies, and we feel sure that they, like ourselves, will find enjoyment in doing so.

Bannockburn. By John E. Morris. A Centenary Monograph. (Cambridge University Press, 5s. net. )

WE have great pleasure in recommending this monograph alike to historical students and to general readers who are interested in mediseval warfare and in the battle of Bannockburn in par- ticular. Dr. Morris has assimilated with some eagerness the work done by Mr. Mackenzie in elucidating the puzzles presented by the ordi- nary accounts ot the battle. Not all modern experts on the question will agree with him, but we must confess that on the all-important question of the real site of the battle he seems to us to make out an incontrovertible case for the theory which he and Mr. Mackenzie hold. This is to the effect that the fighting took place not on the upland, but on the level Carse, in the tract between the Forth and the Bannock the English, most disastrously for them, having the Bannock at their backs. If this ground is accepted, the movements of the Scottish army otherwise almost unintelligible as the tactics of a master of war are readily explained, and the accounts of the different authorities may be harmonized without violence.

The story of the battle as we learnt it in our childhood falls almost to nothing. Edward's army of 100,000 men soon, no doubt, began to seem doubtful ; but the awful charge of the heavy-armed English horse, and the plunge into the treacherous "pots," covered with earth and hurdles, and fitted! with wicked stakes, seemed still to survive, as did the " multitude that watched afar " which poured down on the wearied English at the end of the day and completed the rout. Dr. Morris, however, assured that the Carse was the battle-field, tells u* that the "pots" were dug, indeed, but, as things- turned out, were never used, while the camp- followers on Gillies' Hill must be relegated to the- region of myth.

One of the ablest features of the work is the handling of the original authorities, and the skill and insight with which each is corrected as to his errors, and made to yield his quota of truth. Thus we have discrepant accounts of the position of the- English archers, said by the Lanercost Chronicler and by Trokelowe to have been in the first line-,, and by Baker to have been in the rear. Dr. Morris plausibly conjectures that the main body of them was in fact in the rear, but that in the course of the battle Edward threw out a skirmishing line of archers a small proportion only of the whole number which drew northwards towards the English right, and did some rapid and not ineffec- tive shooting into the left flank of Douglas.

The account of the battle is preceded bv a good' and careful study of the evolution of tactics andthe composition of armies during the previous reign while the whole monograph points forward to the methods employed at Crecy and Poitiers. It is curious, in analyzing the levies, to observe how unwarlike at one time were the northerners of England, and, again, for how long a time it was Welshmen, not Englishmen, who could alone be- counted on to do execution as archers.