WHEN LONDON WAS YOUNG.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3145, 27 November 1922, Page 2

WHEN LONDON WAS YOUNG.

(By Brian Lawrence.) Few citizens of London are aware that their city was originally built on five hills. Modern roads and buildings have so altered the first site of London that it is now difficult to tell which tho live hills in question are or to conjure up in the imagination any picture of the land before it was built over. The five hills on which old' London was founded are now known as Not ting Hill, the Marble Arch, or Tybmrn Hill, as it was once called, Piccadilly Circus, Cheapsidc, and Cornhill; taking them in their order from west to east. The original settlement was made on the easternmost hill, namely Cornhill, and it is probable that this consisted of nothing more than a species of earthwork •forming a crude kind of fortress, or camp. As London grew and began to resemble something of what we have now conic to think of as a city, the buildings were extended westwards along the five hills, taking them in their order. In early ages a great part of the present site of the city, especially that portion south of the Thames, was at high water nothing more than a gigantic lake. The five hills merely appeared as eminences in the marsh'formed bv the delta of the Thames. Even at the present day. when the tide is up, many parts of Kennington, Southwark, and Rermondsey are actually below the level of the river. In fact, when London was first founded, the whole of that district from Rotherhithe and Lambeth to Peckham and Camberwell, which is now so thicklv populated, presented the appearance of a huge lagoon. The very name London, if we trace out its derivation, shows that the early settlement must have presented something of the appearance of Venice at the present day. It is well known that the word London comes from the Latin Londinium, which was the name given to our city by the Romans when they 3ccupied Britain. It seems probable that the Romans joined this name from the Celtic word, lilyn-diii. which was what the original settlement on Cornhill was christened. Ihe word "Din" means a hill or fortress, and 'Llyn" means a lake. So the nil name Llyn-din, or London as wc low call it, really means "the fortress m tho lake.''

lii America, where there are many , evel railroad crossings unprotected by ;ates or -fences, it is a habit for motorhts to take daring risks;. A new idea :o insure safety for such motorists : « low being put into force in some 1 of | lie States. A speed curb is arranged • in each side of the level crossing, con- ( isting of a curved passage-way through i rhich the vehicle must paee to go over i be rails. This curb flows down the i -chicle so that it is impossible for a ] Inver to go across the line at high i peed, and even a foolhardly man would i iot creep across in front of an oncoming \ rain.