Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 2.djvu/680

Rh LONDON. 672 LONDON. of the ancient Dclgovitia. The par. includes the hmlt. of Easttorpo. The Clifford family were the former possessors, from whom the property afterwards passed to the Duke of Devonshire. The living is a rect. * in the dioc. of York, val. 798. The church, dedicated to All Saints, is an ancient stone edifice, with a square tower. It contains several marble monuments, antique brasses, and a stono font. There are almshousoo for twelve persons, founded by the Earl and Countess of Burlington in 1680, with an endowment of 100 per annum. The other small charities amount to about 3. There is a National school for both sexes. Coins and numerous Eoman remains have been found in the neigh- bourhood. Londesborough Park is the seat of Lord Londesborough, who is lord of the manor, and whoso title of baron is derived from this place. LONDON, the metropolis and seat of government of the British empire, and also of a university and an epis- copal see, stands upon both banks of the Thames, being about CO miles from its mouth at the Nore by the course of the river, and about 40 in a direct line by land. It occu- pies portions of Middlesex to the N. of the Thames, and of Kent and Surrey to the S., and is situated, measuring from the centre of the dome of St. Paul's, in 51 30' 47'59 " N. lat., 6' 48-2" W. long, from the meridian of Green- wich Observatory. It contains, according to the published abstract of the Registrar-General, 37 registration dis- tricts and Poor-law Unions, of which the following are situated in Middlesex Kensington, Chelsea, St. George's Hanover-square, Westminster, St. Martin' s-in- the-Fields, St. James's Westminster, Marylebone, Hamp- stead, St. Paneras, Islington, Hackney, St. Giles's, Strand, Holborn, Clerkenwell, St. Luke's, East London, West London, London City, Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, St. George's-in-the-East, Stepney, Mile- end Old Town, Poplar ; in Surrey St. Saviour's South- wark, St. Olave's Southwark, Bermondsey, St. George's Southwark, Newington, Lambeth, Wandsworth, Cam- berwell, and Rotherhithe ; in Kent Greenwich, Dept- ford, and Lewisham. Of these, although Hampstead, Camberwell, Wandsworth, Greenwich, Deptford, and Lewisham are seldom considered as belonging to London generally so caDed, yet, as they are included in the metropolitan conveyance routes and in the official re- turns of the Registrar-General, it would not be correct to omit them in any strict enumeration of the London districts. The derivation of the name London still remains doubtful, but it is generally thought that it is of British or Celtic origin. By some the first syllable is supposed to be derived from llyn, a lake, by others from llwt/n, a wood ; or from llawn, populous, Ion, a plain, or Hong, a ship ; and each of these, with the ter- mination dun, or thun, signifying " a place either natu- rally or artificially adapted for safety," added to it, has received the support of antiquarian writers as being the parent form of our modern word London. Be this as it may, very soon after its original foundation the ancient city (although it is never once mentioned by name either by Cassar, Strabo, or the elder Pliny) must have risen to con- siderable importance, for Tacitus, who is the first to notice it, speaks of it in his Annals as being, even in his time (A.D. 62), remarkable for its trade and commerce ; and in th.e Itinerary of Antoninus, which is probably not later than the time of Severus (A.D. 193 211), it occurs six times in the routes as the place either of starting or return a fact which in itself speaks for its eminence, as no other town is so often or so conspicuously denoted. At the rising of the Britons, under Boadicea (A.D. 61), no less than 70,000 of the inhabitants are said to have perished ; and although this is doubtless an exaggeration, it never- theless proves how densely the city was populated even at that early period of its history. The oldest portion of London is in the City, near the Thames, in the streets about Maiden-lane, Dowgate, Walbrook, the parts adja- cent to the Tower and Billingsgate, and extending back as far as Lombard and Fcnchurch streets. Here was the ancient British settlement of the Trinotantes, consist- ing of a rude sort of town formed by a collection of huts, or cabins, built of stakes and wattles, and surrounded by marshes and dense woodlands. Its position on til Thames gave it immense advantages for commerce ; ui at the beginning of the 4th century, according to son historians, it was surrounded by a wall constructed by Constantino the Great at the request of his motlic Helena, who was a native of Britain ; others assert 1 the wall was built by Theodosius (367 370), who sue cessfully opposed the incursions of the Franks, Picts, a Saxons, and in whoso honour the grateful inhabitant gave to their chief town the name of Augusta. ancient walls were about 2 miles in circumference, i 22 feet in height. They started from a fort close where the Tower now stands, and after proceec" by the Minories, Houndsditch, Cripplegatc, Aklersg and Newgate, terminated at another fort situated on I Fleet River. Portions of the Roman wall still exist, t many Roman remains have been found in or near ' sites just indicated. The " London Stone," which is 1 into St. Swithin's Church, in Cannon-street, is believ to have been the centre milestone from which the Roma roads were measured. Of these four started from three terminated in London, the principal of them 1 Watling-street, which was the via prcetoria, or high i from London to Dover. Roman remains have be found in the Fleet Ditch, the bed of the Than Ludgate Hill, the sites of the Royal Exchange, Paul's, Bow Church, the Guildhall, Lothbury, Lomba street, Birchin-lane, St. Mary-at-Hill, St. Dunstan's-in the-East, Long-lane, Crosby-square, Old Broad-street, Camomile-street, Crutched Friars, Fcnchurch-street, the Tower, Bishopsgate, Spitalfields, the Minories, and seine other spots in these neighbourhoods. In 457 Hengist overthrew the Britons, and made London the capital of his kingdom, which extended over Kent, Middlesex, Essex, and Sussex ; and in 530 a colony of East Saxons invaded it. The Saxons began to quarrel among them- selves, and at the battle of Wimbledon an engagement took place between the Saxons of Kent and those of Wessex. The former, under Ethelbert, were defeated; and, in 598, Augustin became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. In 604 he died, and Mellitus having be- come Bishop of London, the erection of St. Paul's Cathe- dral commenced (circa 608), on the site of an ancient temple of Diana. In the reign of Sebcrt, Ethelbert'* nephew (circa 614), Westminster Abbey was commenced ; and by this time all the traces of Roman occupation had entirely disappeared from Britain. In 793 the city was nearly destroyed by fire and plague ; but it reco from this and several successive visitations of a similar nature, and by 852 had become so rich and prospi : that it attracted the cupidity of the Northmen, who sailed up the Thames with 850 ships, and after plm, ing London, marched into Mercia and Surrey. In th reign of Alfred several conflicts took place with the Danes, who had occupied London in and about the < until at length Alfred diverted the channel of the riv Lea, and in 895 compelled the invaders to fly to Brid north. The Londoners then captured several of tl ships, and brought them in triumph to London. Up this time almost all their houses hud been of v Alfred induced as many of the inhabitants as he could to use stone or brick instead, and he present*', with improved models of ships for purposes both of commerce and war. The Danes, however, still cunti- nued to infest the country, and in 995 Olavc, king of Norway, sailed past London to Staines, which laged; but upon his return with Swoyn, king murk, for the same purpose, in the following was repulsed by the citizens of London. The 1: Olave sailed past London proves that at this time there was no bridge over the Thames ; but one w. built in consequence. It was laid on piles, ^; enough for two carriages, and had on it bulw::: towers ; but Edmund Ironsides, aided by his old enemy Olave, with whom he had now made an allia: stroyed it in a joint attack upon the Danes, NV!M still maintained a footing in Southwark. Si when Canute invaded England, the bridge v built, and the Danish king's ships reached London by