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And they proceed so with new houses

That old London will quickly overtake us.'

The next subject is "Lambeth Palace," an edifice that might suffice to furnish events and characters that would occupy volumes. The author of the paper, however, avoiding such incidents as have ceased to have a general interest, proceeds from one part of the palace buildings,-from one prominent feature or distinguished apartment to another, and by throwing into his narrative whatever he has found most worthy of record suggested by each, has been enabled briefly, and without dry details, to present an intelligible survey. Thus, of the buildings enumerated in the steward's accounts of the palace, in the 15th year of Edward II., we find, says our author," the 'great gate' mentioned, which then admitted friends and repelled foes in accordance with the double duties imposed upon those characteristic old piles. The present gateway," it is continued, "which for size and height has perhaps no existing rival, was rebuilt about 1490 by Cardinal Morton. The groined roof is very fine, the different portions of which it is composed springing from four pillars, one in each corner. A low door-way on the right hand leads through the porter's lodge to a room the original purpose of which there is little difficulty in discovering; three strong iron rings yet hang from the excessively thick walls, which have echoed with the sighs of hopeless prisoners torn from their quiet firesides, and the company of those dear to them by the ties of nature and of love, to expiate the crime of daring to think for themselves." These and other relics within and around the Archbishop's domicile may fill the mind with more of the dark and the forbidding, than with the light and the love which the learning and religion of the numerous occupants have shed abroad. The Lollards' Prison, for instance, with its eight rings, would supply us with many melancholy homilies, and with severe satires on the church. But we hasten from the theme, in order to transfer ourselves to still older relics in the underground of London,-to the paper on "The Roman Remains ;" in a preceding contribution an attempt having been made, by means of the combined light of ancient records and existing appearances, to trace the history and limits of Roman London. Instead of that more general survey, we have now notices of some of the most remarkable of the vestiges of the Roman occupation that the waste of time has left.

In our day there exist very few, if any, of these remains above ground; so that it is only now and then, and by the disinterment of some long buried urn, fragment of a statue, or portion of tesselated pavement, that undoubted vestiges of a people that for centuries were masters of England are found. A considerable variety of other Roman relics have been brought to light in the course of

modern excavations and improvements, such as architectural foundations, coins, pottery, utensils, tools, and ornaments. But when it is borne in mind that during the fourteen hundred years that have elapsed since the people in question bore sway "upon the original floor of this great gathering-place of human beings, and centre of industry and commerce," and that between fifteen and twenty feet of dust and rubbish have accumulated above that original floor, it will not be expected that much will appear to open day even of the massive walls which they erected. The Great Fire of London would alone destroy or hide much antiquarian wealth; nor was it until the improvements of the capital were set about after that calamity, that what is called the Roman stratum began to be frequently reached, and the discoveries appreciated. From the paper before us we shall quote an account of some of the more striking discoveries of Roman Remains that have been made and verified:

"Among the most interesting relics of the Roman occupation are the various tessellated pavements that have been brought to light in different parts of the City. The custom of ornamenting the floors of their apartments by figures formed of tesseræ, or small pieces of coloured pebble, marble, artificial stone, and glass, was probably not introduced among the Romans till after the destruction of the Republic. Suetonius notes it as one of the sumptuous habits of Julius Cæsar in the latter part of his career, that he used on his marches to carry about with him such pavements, or rather, probably, quantities of the materials for forming them-tessellata et sectilia pavimenta-with which it has been supposed he floored his prætorium wherever he pitched his camp. How this species of decoration has come in modern times to receive the name of Mosaic-work is matter of disputethough the term is commonly supposed to be a corruption of Museum or Musivum, which Pliny and other later Roman writers seem to speak of as a kind of ornamental pavement, or rather ceiling-so called, it is conjectured, because it may have been originally used in caves and grottos consecrated to the Muses. It may be observed, however, that the tessellated pavements of the ancients have little pretension to rank with the Mosaic pictures of modern times, in which, by the aid of a vast variety of colours, almost as perfect a gradation of shades is effected as could be produced by the pencil. The Roman tessellated pavements in general present only the simplest patterns, such as a scroll border with an indifferently drawn human or animal figure in the centre; and most of them are composed of not more than two or three different colours. In some rare instances, however, the tints are considerably more numerous. The most magnificent specimen yet discovered in London was found in December 1803, in Leadenhall Street, immediately in front of the easternmost columns of the portico of the India House. It lay at the depth of only nine feet and a half below the street, which therefore had not been raised at this spot nearly so high above the Roman level as in most other parts of the city. Unfortunately, the line of an old sewer which ran across the street had cut away above a third

of the pavement on the east side; but the central compartment, a square of eleven feet, remained nearly entire, as well as the greater part of the border. Altogether, the apartment of which it had been the floor appeared to have been a room of more than twenty feet square. The device occupying the centre was a figure of Bacchus, reclining on the back of a tiger, holding his thyrsus erect in his left hand, while a small two-handed drinking-cup hung from his right; a wreath of vine-leaves circling his forehead -a purple and green mantle falling from his right shoulder, and gathered round his waist-with a sandal on his extended left foot, the lacing of which reached to the calf of the leg. This design was surrounded by three circular borders; the first exhibiting, on a party-coloured field composed of dark grey, light grey, and red ribands, a serpent with a black back and white belly; the second, a series of white cornucopiæ indented in black; the third and outermost, a succession of concave squares. In two of the angular spaces between this last circle and the circumscribing rectangular border were double-handed drinking-cups; in the other two, delineations of some unknown plant; both figures wrought in dark grey, red, and black, on a white ground. The square border surrounding the whole consisted of two distinct belts-one described as bearing 'some resemblance to a bandeau of oak, in dark and light grey, red, and white, on a black ground;' the other exhibiting 'eight lozenge figures, with ends in the form of hatchets, in black on a white ground, enclosing circles of black, on each of which was the common ornament, a true lovers' knot.' Beyond this was a margin at least five feet broad, formed of plain red tiles, each an inch square. We annex such a copy as a woodcut can produce of this elaborate design, taken from a coloured print published soon after its disinterment by Mr. Thomas Fisher, accompanied with the description to which we have been indebted for the above particulars. In this beautiful specimen of Roman Mosaic,' says Mr. Fisher, the drawing, colouring, and shadows are all effected with considerable skill and ingenuity by the use of about twenty separate tints, composed of tessellæ of different materials, the major part of which are baked earths; but the more brillant colours of green and purple, which form the drapery, are glass. These tessellæ are of different sizes and figures, adapted to the situations they occupy in the design. They are placed in rows either straight or curved, as occasion demanded, each tessella presenting to those around it a flat side: the interstices of mortar being thus very narrow, and the bearing of the pieces against each other uniform, the work in general possessed much strength, and was very probably, when uninjured by damp, nearly as firm to the foot as solid stone. The tessellæ used in forming the ornamented borders were in general somewhat larger than those in the figures, being cubes of half an inch.' This Leadenhall Street tessellated pavement, which lay on a bed of lime and brick-dust, an inch in thickness, was taken up at the charge of the East India Company, but was broken to pieces in the process; the fragments of it, however, were deposited in the Company's Library.

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"In 1805, in the course of digging the foundations for an extension of the buildings of the Bank of England, another tessellated pavement was found in Lothbury, near the south-east angle of the area now enclosed by the

walls of the Bank. It lay at the depth of about eleven feet below the surface. Of this too Mr. Fisher published a coloured engraving and a description; and, having been taken up without sustaining any injury under the direction of the late Mr. Soane, the architect, it was presented by the Directors of the Bank to the British Museum, where it may still be seen. But it is not to be compared to the Leadenhall Street specimen either in design or workmanship. Its dimensions are only four feet each way, and it occupied the centre of a floor of eleven feet square. The central figure seems designed to represent four expanded leaves; the rectangular border is similar to the innermost of the two stripes forming the double border of the other pavement. Mr. Fisher states, that, 'on examining the fragments of the marginal pavement which had been taken up with it, evident marks of fire were observed on the face of them; and to one piece adhered some ashes of burnt wood, and a small piece not quite burnt.'

"Other tessellated pavements are recorded to have been discovered in Bush Lane, Cannon Street, in 1666; near St. Andrew's Church, Holborn, in 1681; at Crutched Friars in 1787; behind the old Navy Pay Office in Broad Street, in Northumberland Alley, Fenchurch Street, and in Long Lane, Smithfield, about the beginning of the present century; near the Church of St. Dunstan's in the East in 1824; in East Cheap in 1831; at St. Clement's Church, and in Lothbury, opposite to Founders' Court, in 1834; in Crosby Square in 1836; behind Winchester House in Southwark in 1650; in various places on both sides of the Borough High Street at different times from 1818 to 1831; and in a few other localities. But in few or none of these instances has either the pavement itself been preserved or even any description of it. Within these few weeks what appeared to a somewhat hurried and not very close view to be a very perfect and rather elegant specimen was brought to light in pulling down the French Protestant Church in Threadneedle Street, at the depth apparently of nine or ten feet under where the floor of the church had been, immediately within and a little to the left of the principal entry. This, we understood, it was intended to have carefully taken up, and it will probably be deposited in some public museum or private collection. But it was more interesting to look down upon it there where it lay on the very spot which it had occupied for certainly more than fourteen centuries-where the eye of admiration had first rested upon it, and it had borne the actual tread of Roman feet, mingling in the dance or other social assemblage, in the palmy days of that buried civilization, when what was now a dark some pit dug in the earth had made part of an airy, glittering domicile, full of light and life. The colours, among which a deep yellow or tawny predominated, looked wonderfully fresh and glowing-thus still more strongly forcing upon the imagination the presence of the past."

The barbarism that succeeded Roman domination in this country, the probable fact that that people used brick instead of stone in their architectural structures where London now stretches over and beyond, must explain in part the prostration of the ancient grandeur of the city. It is proper to add, that according to the opinion of

some distinguished antiquaries, nothing very good of Roman work ever existed in Britain.

Our readers may be desirous that notice should be taken by us of one or two more of the twenty-five articles which go to complete the first volume of "London," the sale of which has been such, we learn, as to encourage the Editor to hope that it will be brought to completeness, when, notwithstanding its miscellaneous character, it may be seen not to be wholly without a plan, or undeserving of the name of novelty. We pass over "Piccadilly" with this brief statement, that it"continues still to be one of the great vomitories of London," but that the railways have eclipsed the glories of longstage coaching; so that the "White-Horse Cellar is no longer what it was. The race of long-stage drivers in white milled box-coats, multitudinous neck-handkerchiefs, and low-crowned hats, who gave law to the road, and were the glass of fashion and the mould of form,' to the ingenuous youth of England, are disappearing." Sic transit! such are the mutations in the "Great Metropolis." not steam alone, the Birmingham, the Great Western, and Southwestern railways, that have wrought this revolution. The omnibuses have had a good deal to do in the matter; and these, along with the many varieties and multitudes of other vehicles,-huge market-carts, ponderous wagons, and rattling post-chaises, not to speak of gentlemen's equipages and numberless cabs, "still present us with a thoroughfare not a whit less crowded, bustling, and confusing than in the days of old."

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"Crosby Place" is the next subject, which is said to derive its name from Sir John Crosby, its reputed builder, an alderman of London during the reign of Edward the Fourth. The preservation of its Hall, through all vicissitudes, although it is situated in the immediate vicinity of one of the apparently most confused and noisy parts of the city, is attributed by J. Saunders, the author of the paper, to the popularity the House derived from the well-known passage in Shakspere, where the Duke of Glo'ster woos and wins the Lady Anne; enjoining her to "presently repair to Crosby House."

"Old Whitehall," "New Whitehall," "Ben Jonson's London" follow, and then we have "Ranelagh and Vauxhall," the last of these having received its doom, and at the moment we write being fast hurrying to be as though it had never been, and when, instead of its bowers and temples and endless entertainments, there shall be a forest of red-brick mansions, and a world of thought, and toil. Our last formal and considerable extract will carry us back to some of the antiquities and renowned feats in this now closed and vanishing characteristic of London.

"Vauxhall, though under another name, dates its origin a little earlier than Ranelagh. The first mention of its existence as a public place of resort is also one of the most interesting of its many and illustrious literary

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