In the course of the next three generations the political and social
elements of Roman civilization in Britain seem to have disappeared. A
few words, such as "port" and "street," which may or may not have been
derived from the Latin, have come down to us. But there was nothing
left, of which we can speak with absolute certainty, save the material
shell,--the walls, roads, forts, villas, arches, gateways, altars, and
tombs, whose ruins are still seen scattered throughout the land.
The soil, also, is full of relics of the same kind. Twenty feet below
the surface of the London of to-day lie the remains of the London of
the Romans. In digging in the "City,"[1] the laborer's shovel every
now and then brings to light pieces of carved stone with Latin
inscriptions, bits of rusted armor, broken swords, fragments of
statuary, and gold and silver ornaments.
[1] The "City": This is the name given to that part of central London,
about a mile square, which was formerly enclosed by Roman walls. It
contains the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange, and other very
important business buildings. Its limit on the west is the site of
Temple Bar; on the east, the Tower of London.
So, likewise, several towns, long buried in the earth, and the
foundations of upwards of a hundred country houses have been
discovered; but these seem to be about all. If Rome left any traces
of her literature, law, and methods of government, they are
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