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III.—Some Recent Excavations in London

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2011

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The discoveries recorded in the following pages cover, in more than one sense, a considerable period of time. Some of them were made as early as the spring of 1915, immediately after the present author had read a paper on a similar subject, which was later published in Archaeologia, lxvi. The bulk, however, are the fruits of the resumption of building operations in 1919 and 1920, after the great blank interval of the War. It is not proposed, in the description of the finds, to distinguish exactly between these periods, for the sites investigated fall by a happy chance into two groups–one in King William Street, the other about London Wall and Finsbury Circus–each of which can be treated as a whole. It will be sufficient for the present purpose to note that one site from each group–the Comptoir National from the first, and 12 to 26 Finsbury Circus from the second–was excavated in 1915, and the rest between the autumn of 1919 and the summer of 1921.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1921

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References

page 55 note 1 Archaeologia, xxvii, 140.Google Scholar

page 57 note 1 Archaeologia, viii, 132.Google Scholar

page 57 note 2 ibid., xxiv, 192.

page 58 note 1 For this valuable evidence I am indebted to Mr. G. F. Lawrence, Inspector of Excavations to the London Museum.

page 59 note 1 Now in the British Museum; see Guide to Roman Britain, fig. 139.

page 61 note 1 Herbert, W., History of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, 212Google Scholar , and Gent. Mag., 1833, ii, 421Google Scholar.

page 61 note 2 I was out of London when this piece of wall was found, and am indebted to Mr. Roland S. Smith, Surveyor to the Guardian Assurance Company, for details of the discovery.

page 62 note 1 On the figs. 1 and 8 the whole site is for simplicity called 2-4 Miles Lane, because the excavation was approached from that side. It included, however, the three houses fronting the Bridge Approach. The whole site is now occupied by the Anglo-Egyptian Bank.

page 66 note 1 But see foot-note, p. 69.

page 67 note 1 Archaeologia, lxiii, 309.Google Scholar

page 68 note 1 Laing, D., New Custom-House, 56.Google Scholar

page 69 note 1 Herbert, W., History of St. Michael's, Crooked Lane, 1418.Google Scholar See also Archaeologia, xxv, 601.

page 69 note 2 Smith, C. R., Illustrations of Roman London, 18Google Scholar , and Archaeologia, xxix, 150-1, and lxiii, 307-9.

page 69 note 3 Antiquities found in the Excavations at the New Royal Exchange, xxiii and xxiv.

page 69 note 4 Prof. W. R. Lethaby writes: ‘The flanking wood walls which ran back so much farther than the others seem to have been in such a definite relation to the brick building that I think one work must have belonged to the other. I feel that the wood wall front was a sort of wharfing for levelling up the site of the building, and that the two side walls bounded this particular piece of levelling up. I would venture to suggest that the short intermediate divisions were ties into the made-up ground at the back. I doubt the idea that there was a second inner line making up a thick city wall. The plan of the brick building suggested a simple corridor house.’

page 72 note 1 Middleton, J. H., The Remains of Ancient Rome, i, 61Google Scholar , and illustrations in American Journal of Archaeology, 2nd Ser., xvi, 230 ff.

page 72 note 2 Jour. Brit, Arch, Ass., iv, 38, and xxiv, 295.Google Scholar

page 73 note 1 Archaeologia, lxiii, 270.Google Scholar

page 74 note 1 Jour. Brit. Arch. Ass., xxxviii, 424-6Google Scholar. The number of the house is given as 55, which was then, and still is, at the other end of the street; but it is stated that the site was close to Finsbury Place (i. e. Finsbury Pavement) and extended through to Fore Street.

page 74 note 2 V. C. H. London, i, 61.Google Scholar

page 76 note 1 Now (since 1st January 1922) re-named ‘Moorgate’ and re-numbered.

page 76 note 2 See Mr. F. W. Reader's summary in Arch. Journ., lx, 139-55.

page 77 note 1 Archaeologia, lx, 174-5, and lxiii, 316.Google Scholar

page 77 note 2 Anthr. Review, v (1867), lxxi.Google Scholar

page 77 note 3 Arch. Jour., lx, 179-203.Google Scholar

page 77 note 4 Archaeologia, lx, 169.Google Scholar

page 77 note 5 Stow (ed. Kingsford), i, 175.

page 77 note 6 Price, J. E., Bucklersbury Pavement, 48.Google Scholar

page 78 note 1 Archaeologia, xxix, 153.Google Scholar

page 78 note 2 Proceedings vi, 171.Google Scholar The find of 1868 is a glass vessel now at Guildhall. But Price's map of the Walbrook puts it on the other side of the stream. See Lon. and Mid. Arch. Soc.Trans., iii, 492.Google Scholar

page 78 note 3 Formerly in the Mayhew Collection, now in the British Museum. See Jour. Brit. Arch. Ass., xxxi, 209.Google Scholar

page 78 note 4 Stow (ed. Kingsford), i, 12, and Eng. Hist. Review, xi, 731.Google Scholar

page 78 note 5 Stow (ed. Kingsford), i, 93.

page 78 note 6 Ibid., i, 19.

page 79 note 1 Letter Book I, fo. III.

page 79 note 2 Letter Book I, fo. 152, quoted by Riley, H. T., Memorials of London, 614615.Google Scholar See also Stow (ed. Kingsford). i, 32, and ii, 76.

page 80 note 1 Stow (ed. Kingsford), ii, 76-7.

page 80 note 2 Stow (ed. Kingsford), i, 32, and ii, 77.

page 80 note 3 Stow (ed. Kingsford), i, 32.

page 81 note 1 Letter Book X, fo. 199, and Rep. 17, fo. 442 b. Who Master Parret was does not appear in any other entry.

page 81 note 2 Remembrancia, ii, 354.Google Scholar

page 81 note 3 The strip of ground on the west of the road outside Moorgate, shown clearly in Faithorne's map (fig. 17), and not to be confused with Middle Moorfields.

page 82 note 1 Did. Nat. Biog., and Nicholl, J., History of the Ironmongers' Company, 554–9Google Scholar.

page 82 note 2 The rails along the city boundary between Lower and Middle Moorfields, shown clearly in the Agas map (fig. 15). This wall is absent in Faithorne's map (fig. 16).

page 82 note 3 For the storage of timber at Leadenhall, see Stow (ed. Kingsford), i, 158 (quoting a petition of 1519): ‘As also the store of tymber for the necessarie reparations of the tenements belonging to the chamber of the said citie, there commonly hath ben kept.’

page 83 note 1 The mention of Bedlam suggests that by Moorditch is here meant Deep Ditch, the last remnant of the Walbrook; that the proposed wall ran along the eastern boundary of Lower Moorfields; and that the stocks stood in the south-eastern corner of the field, and the garden beside Bethlem churchyard. For the stocks, see p. 88 below.

page 83 note 2 Along the line of South Place. See the Agas map (fig. 15).

page 85 note 1 Is this the last of Deep Ditch and the Walbrook ?

page 85 note 2 The spring of Dame Annis was between the present Tabernacle Square and Old Street. The highway appears clearly on Faithorne's map (fig. 16), running north-east between the windmills north of Upper Moorfields and a large polygonal enclosure covered with tenters. It is called Windmill Hill in Roque's map and is now Tabernacle Street. See Stow (ed. Kingsford), i, 16, and ii, 273.

page 86 note 1 Unless there is a mistake in these measurements, one can only suppose this wall to be along the bank of a stream, the last relic of a Walbrook tributary. Faithorne, however, shows no trace of a stream east of Upper Moorfields, nor any clear indication of a wall.

page 86 note 2 Piece-work, or by agreement for a fixed charge for the whole work.

page 87 note 1 See Collier, J. P., Bibliographical Account of the Rarest Books in the English Language, i, 406.Google Scholar

page 91 note 1 1720 ed., i, 1, 17.

page 93 note 1 1739 ed., 506.

page 93 note 2 Vol. x, pt. 3, p. 186.

page 95 note 1 See May, T., The Pottery found at Silchester, 303.Google Scholar

page 95 note 2 See Faussett, B., Inventorium Sepulchrale, pl. xvi, 14 and 15.Google Scholar

page 97 note 1 Mr. A. S. Kennard, F.G.S., and Mrs. E. M. Read, F.L.S., have kindly examined the molluscan and botanical contents of this layer, and their reports are printed in Appendix II.

page 97 note 2 It is difficult to find a Roman parallel either to the fairly hard white paste of thisjug or to its shape. But see May, T., The Pottery found at Silchester, 124–5.Google Scholar It wa s undoubtedly found in the apparently undisturbed bed of rushes.

page 98 note 1 Jour. Brit. Arch. Assoc., xiii, 187-202.Google Scholar

page 98 note 2 Price, F. G. Hilton, Old Base Metal Spoons, 2021.Google Scholar

page 98 note 3 Brit. Mus. Guide to Mediaeval Room, 181.

page 100 note 1 Stow (ed. Kingsford), i, 176.

page 101 note 1 The Common Hunt at this date, whose name was John Burton, had just taken Cripplegate as his dwelling-place (Rep. 7, fo. 126 b). Living there, and having his official head-quarters at the dog-house, he was well placed for the oversight of Moorfields.

page 103 note 1 Stow (ed. Kingsford), i, 10.

page 105 note 1 Now re-named Moorgate and re-numbered.