ROMANO-BRITISH LONDON other near the Stationers' Hall (Plan C, 65), being a little south of the tower which has been recently discovered and destroyed. The storehouses on the west of the courtyard of Stationers' Hall are built partly on the wall, beyond which also on the same line is the west side of St. Martin's Church (Plan C, 56), At this point the wall was intercepted by Ludgate (Plan C, 57). It was here that Sir Christopher Wren/' while digging for the foundations of St. Martin's Church, found a Roman inscribed monumental stone, and other Roman stones were found in i8o6 behind the London Coffee House ; these may have come from a later Roman gate or from the adjoining bastion. The course of the wall from Ludgate to the Thames is not very clear. It was probably quarried for the building of Blackfriars Monastery and for the extension of the wall in 1276, a portion of this later wall having been discovered in 1892 with Roman tiles incorporated in it here and there.*" But the only evidence of the wall having continued south from Ludgate consists of some fragments of Roman masonry built up between the walls of the Blackfriars Monastery, discovered in 1843 by W. Chaffers, junr., in Play- house Yard (Plan C, 58), and described by him as a wall 10 ft. thick, composed of large unhewn stones imbedded in red mortar ; an inscribed stone belonging to a monument was also found. Close to this some Roman masonry was found under the Times Office in Printing House Square " which was considered by Roach Smith to have been part of the City wall, but he does not describe its character (Plan C, 59). It seems clear from the records granting the Black Friars permission to demolish the City wall in this part, that its line was at that time in the direction indicated by the last-mentioned discoveries ; but this is not certain. The discovery in Playhouse Yard has none of the character- istics of the early Roman structure, but exactly corresponds to the style of building of the bastions and the south wall ; and although no details are given of the find in Printing House Square, it appears to have been a continuation of that in Playhouse Yard, and was presumably of the same character. Another Roman wall (Plan C, 60) was found a tew years ago during the rebuilding of No. 56 Carter Lane, which is said by the builder to have been 8 ft. thick, and to have been constructed of ragstone with layers of tiles, exactly corresponding with that he saw recently at New Broad Street ; it ran diagonally across the site from north-west to south-east. In view of the slight evidence for the generally-accepted south course, it may be well to consider the possibility of the original wall having been de- flected from Ludgate in the direction indicated by the discovery at Carter Lane, as observation may more probably be directed to any further discoveries that may come to light. Further probability is given to this view by the parish boundary, which at this point coincides with the suggested course of the wall. If this line is extended further to the south-east it meets a wall discovered on the north side of Knightrider Street (the west portion formerly known as Great Knightrider Street), and extending beyond it north of the Heralds' College, running east and west '^ (Plan C, 61). It was constructed of " Parentalia, 266 ; Roach Smith, Illus. Rom. Lond. 22. " Antiquary, xxv, 51.
- ' Joum. Brit. Arch Assoc, v, 155.
" This line of wall is described by W. H. Black, who supposes it to have formed the south wall of his conjectural Primitive Roman London ; Arch, xl, 48. 69
