7.

LONDON AS A WALLED TOWN

It is not by any means easy to imagine the present London as a walled
town. The multiplicity of streets, the lofty and pretentious character
of its buildings, and the immense suburban area of bricks and mortar
which surrounds it, render it an extremely difficult task to picture in
the mind's eye what the ancient city looked like when all the houses
were enclosed by a lofty and substantial wall, largely of Roman masonry,
and when admission could only be obtained by strongly defended gateways,
approached by means of drawbridges spanning the encircling moat of City
Ditch.

[Illustration: OLD WOODEN HOUSES AT CRIPPLEGATE (RECENTLY DEMOLISHED).]

Whatever additions or reparations may have been made in the Middle Ages
to the wall of London, there is no reason to doubt that the area it
enclosed was that which its Roman builders had laid out, with the
exception of an extension at the south-western corner made to enclose
the house of the Black Friars. What happened to the wall of London when
the Roman occupation of Britain was determined by the withdrawal of the
legions is a matter which scarcely falls within the scope of this paper.
Whether the place was abandoned, like other Roman walled towns, such as
Silchester, etc., or whether it maintained a population throughout the
dark ages, are questions which have exercised the ingenuity and
imagination of several antiquarian authorities,[72] but it must be
confessed that the evidence is insufficient to enable one to settle it
conclusively.

Whatever may have been the early history of Londinium after the Romans
left it, the fact remains that the limits and bounds of the actual city
continued for many centuries afterwards. It is known that Alfred the
Great caused the walls to be repaired; but the precise significance of
this is not great, because he may have been merely carrying out a
long-needed work, and from the very solid character of the Roman wall
(judging from the fragments that remain) it seems scarcely conceivable
that his operations extended lower than the battlements of the wall,
unless indeed they comprised the freeing of the ditch and berme from
vegetation, obstructions, or other kinds of weakness.

What the houses of London were like when Alfred repaired the wall is not
known. Probably they were constructed of timber and were humble in size
and ornamentation. It is doubtful if anything of the nature of a house
built of masonry was