LONDON'S FIRST INHABITANTS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 80, 5 April 1926, Page 9

LONDON'S FIRST INHABITANTS

Professor F. G. Parsons, in a lecture on "The Earlier Inhabitants of London,'' pointed out that St. Thomas's Hospital occupied the site of an ancient ford, which more than anything olso had to do with the site of the future London. It was important because it was the lowest ford across the Thames, and it was probably used by the Lou,? Barrow people, the first of the three great races of the eirth. They buried their dead in long barrows, and were regarded as the builders of Stonehenge. The purest examples were to fro found among the miners of the Forest of Dean. Between 2000 B.C. and 1000 B.C. there came another race known as the Beaker Folk, who were of the Bronze Age, and they were followed hv the Celts. Professor Parsons referred to the fusion of the Long Barrow men and tho Celt and their characteristics, and dealt with the Roman influence and tho introduction of Christianity. There was every probability that the earliest London was on tho southern slopes of Cornhill, and that Ludgato Hill was the site of the merchants' houses, gardens, and vineyards.