The primitive road in Kent as far as Greenwich was on high ground, but beyond was the wide river valley. By bending to the left on the edge of higher ground, through Camberwell where Roman objects have been found, the river might be more nearly approached opposite Westminster, and there was solid land on the opposite bank also. Beyond, at Park Lane, the higher firm ground pushed down towards Westminster, between two little streams—the road here, indeed, was a low ridgeway. All evidence suggests that a British road to Verulam passed the Thames at Westminster. In Allen’s Lambeth, it is said that three “Celts” were found in digging the foundations of Westminster Bridge. Now, in Fairholt’s Albums of Sketches, at South Kensington, are drawings of three bronze weapons thus described: “Swords and spear found August 1847, under Westminster Bridge by a ballast heaver.” The swords (Fig. [174]) were 28½ in. and 23½ in. long, the spear-head or dagger was 16½ in. long. Other pieces of British bronze work have been found in the river in the neighbourhood of the Westminster crossing. Westminster Bridge itself still carries on the tradition by crossing the river at this point, and it is interesting to find recorded that the building of the bridge in the line of the Horse-ferry was the first intention. The importance of the Horse-ferry about 1700 is shown by the list of charges given in Hatton’s New View (1708).
Fig. 174.
My general results in regard to the British and Roman road systems may be summarised thus:
1. A primitive trackway along the North Downs near the south bank of the river.
2. An ancient river-crossing by a ford at Westminster and thence north-west through Britain.
3. The growth of Verulam on this road, and the rise of London as a port in connection with it.
4. A direct London-Verulam road made over Islington—a ridgeway.
5. Hardly two or three persons possessing a boat could have been settled on the site of London before a direct path across Southwark would be taken to reach the Kentish road; thus the route marked by London Bridge must be of pre-Roman origin.
6. Other ways were thrown out; along the Strand to the Westminster crossing; along the comparatively high ground of Piccadilly to the west, and by Old Street and Old Ford to the east.