f London 236

The City Seal in MDCLXX 238

The City Arms, as portrayed by Wallis, in the Reign of
Charles II. 239

LONDON IN EARLY TIMES

BY W. J. LOFTIE, B.A., F.S.A.

[Illustration]

I.--CELTIC LONDON

When we see the words "Celtic London" at the head of a chapter we
naturally feel inclined to ask, "Was there such a place? Was there any
Celtic London?" Although it is almost impossible to answer such a
question by either "yes" or "no," it may be worth while to examine it
briefly before passing on to the domains of authentic history.

In the first place, there must have been some gathering of huts or
houses, some aggregation of residences, to which a name could be
applied, and it must have been important enough to retain its name after
the Romans came--nay, to retain it even in spite of an attempt on their
part to change it.

But though we must accept the existence of a London in the old obscure
period when something very like modern Welsh was the language of the
south-eastern part of Britain, and though we know that London was
situated on a river which also had a Welsh name, we do not know directly
on which side of that river it stood, and have nothing for it but to
apply to the problem what a great authority has described as an
historical imagination, and try if we can find a sufficient number of
geographical or topographical facts to reduce the problematic side of
the questions involved; and so to leave certain points, certain
pedestals, so to speak, of firm ground on which we may place the
foundations of the greatest city the world has seen.

Our first facts are meagre enough. We have three words; no more. They
are Lon, don, and Thames. We are like the Oriental lady in the legend of
St. Thomas of Canterbury. She knew but two words of English--Gilbert and
London. We know three words, and, keeping them in our minds, wander down
the Thames till we find the place to which we can fit the other two
words. But, first, we must make an attempt to translate them into modern
English. The Welsh _Lynn_ is pronounced _lunn_. _Dun_, or _down_, has
passed into English. _Thame_, or _thames_, occurs in many parts of
England, everywhere denoting the same thing, and, according to most
authorities, being practically the same as the English word _tame_. The
name of the Tamar will occur to the m