LONDON'S ORIGIN

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 27, 31 January 1929, Page 4

LONDON'S ORIGIN

Beneath tliQ sombre, title of "An Inventory of Roman remains, tihs Royal Historical Monuments Commission has issued a volume of niatchless interest. It deals with the origin of the. City of London, carrying authority thai none, can gainsay. The earliest chroniclers, zealous for London's renown, would allow it an antiquitw equal to, if not greater, than that of Rome. It was New Trey; Brute founded the upon the Thames Bank; and after Brute came shadowy native kings like LudJ and Belius and many more. Archaeology has swept all such legendg aside, and searching out Qviden.ee has brought the date, of London into historical times. The myth of a primitive lake suu.nmie.nt, bunt upon pnes nas vaulsnea inu) imii an. .bonu.oll is not old as bt. Aiuans and t_/oisnester al"» old. Jsoi.li mese cnies were uipm capitals, tot. Aioans was fcue ooject yi vaeaar's raiu upon jormain m b.<J. y-i. jd loin tueie ■ounoueiiu, aUi'ltlsu King in t.iie. early part. 01 tne first* ce.nuiry of tiio Cniistiaii era, transierreaj ins seat of government to Coicnerser., .London's site* Jap wilapd upon a navigaia.bie river seemed favourable for tne entry of Continental trade with both those places, and it was nos unnatural that credit should have been given to Cunobelin—Shakespeare's Cymbeime—as t th© city's founder. The Historical Monuments Commission will have none of this (aaya the Daily Telegraph). They visualise London as in origin a landing s.tagq, or bridgehead, but its serv-.ee. was give.n to Imperial Rome. In brief, our first glimpse of London is as an entrepot of the new Roman produce. The Emperor Claudius sent in his legions in A.L\ 43; the struggle, with the. native Britons at first was. 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 Rome's highest honours were long withheld, London, when rebuilt after its pillage and) devastation by Doudicca's hordes, never looked back. It is an origin of which the world's greatest city to-day may be justly proud. Stable government, security at se> for the passage of trade, ample communication with the hinterland by her marvellous repd system, and contact with Continental culture—those were Rome's gifts npon which the city flourished increasingly for nearly four centuries.