f their homes. That ancient people must have
had many enemies,--other men who fought them, fierce wild animals,
wolves and other creatures which have not lived in England for hundreds
and hundreds of years; and to defend themselves that people had such
poor weapons, perhaps made only of bronze; so they sought for a very
safe dwelling-place. Down into the muddy bed of the river they drove
great wooden posts, such posts as men drive down now into river or sea
when they are building a pier. The worn {10} tops of those old timbers
have been found showing up through the soil where once the Fleet ran;
and on them once rested a platform of wood on which houses were built.
Is not this a piece of history written in the soil? The first men who
tried to read it understood more easily the meaning of those worn old
posts because to this day the brown people, who live in one of the
great islands to the south-east of Asia, build their houses on just
such platforms out over the water.

How long did the men of that far-off time live in these strange
river-dwellings? That we do not know; it may have been for very many
years. At last (so some learned men believe) they built for themselves
a fort or stronghold on the high land near-by, perhaps where St. Paul's
now stands, but more likely lower down the river, on the next hill;
this stronghold may have been the beginning of London. If, as some
people think, London means "The Fort of the Waters," or "The Lake
Fort," was it not well named?

Up the river to this fort ships may sometimes have come, bringing
merchants to buy pearls and skins of wild animals and slaves; and to
pay for them with such things as the fierce Londoners of those days
would like--a sharp axe or a gay necklace.

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[Illustration: LONDON IN THE TIME OF THE NORMANS.]

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The written history of London does not begin until the Romans had
conquered and were ruling the land, more than a hundred years after
their great general, Julius Caesar, had first come here. They found
London only a little group of huts, very likely made of wickerwork
plastered over with mud, and surrounded by a poor wall and ditch. How
much they did for it! They {12} built round it the great walls which
you see marked in our little map; so strong were they that parts of
their foundations and of the walls