LONDON'S ORIGIN

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 96, 27 April 1929, Page 20

LONDON'S ORIGIN

LEGENDS SWEPT ASIDE

Beneath the sombre title of "An Inventory" of Roman remains, the Royal Historical: Monuments Commission has issued a volume of matchless interest. It deals with the origin of the City of London, carrying authority that none can gainsay. The earliest chroniclers, zealous for. London's renown, would allow it an antiquity equal to, if not greater than, that of Rome. It was New Troy; Brute founded the city upon the Thames bank; and after. Brute came shadowy native kings like Lud and Belius, and many more. Archaelogy has swept all such legends aside, and searching out evidence has brought the date of London into -historical times. The myth of a primitive lake settlement built upon piles has vanished into thin air. London is not old as St. Albans and Colchester are old. Both these cities were tribal capitals. St. Albans was the objective of Caesar's raid upon Britain in B.C. 54 From there Cunobelin, a British king in the early part of the first century of the Christian era, transferred' his seat of government to Colchester. London's site, far inland upon a navigable river, seemed favourable for the entry, of Continental trade with both those places, and it was not unnatural that credit have been ■ given to Cunotfelin —Shakespeare's Cymbeline—as the city's founder. . The Historical Monuments Commission will have none.of this (says the "Daily Telegraph"). They visualise London as in origin a landing stage; or bridgehead, but its service • was given to Imperial Eom*e. In brief, our first glimpse of London is as an entrepot of the new Roman Province. The Emperor Claudius sent in his legions in A.D. 43; the struggle with the native Bri-

tons was. at first fierce, but as early as A.D. 61 London, as pictured by Tacitus, had become "crowded with traders and a great centre for commerce." That was a remarkable transformation in so short a period, and though Borne's highest honours.;, were.'long .withheld London, when rebuilt after its pillage and. devastation-by.-Boadicea's hordes, never looked back, ilt isan origin of whom the world's greatest city to-day maybe justly proud. 1 Stable govern- 1 ment, security at sea for the.passage, of trade, ample communicatibn with tho ■hinterland by- her marvellous road system, and contact with Continental culture—those: were Borne's gifts upon which the city flourished increasingly for nearly. four centuries.'