| 2 | L O N | |
Lud's Town. Upon which suppositions
some of our later historians have had the
weakness to compute, that it had its ori-
gin 1107 years before the birth of Christ;
600 years before the fall of the Assyrian
empire by the death of Belshazzar, and
350 before the building of Rome.
But to leave these fabulous tales. Cam-
den supposes that this city derived the
name of London from the British words
Llhwn a wood, and Dinas a town; by
which etymology of the word, London sig-
nifies a town in a wood: this exactly
agrees with the manner in which the Bri-
tons formed their towns, by building them
in the midst of woods, and fencing them
with trees cut down: but lest this deri-
vation should not please, the same learned
writer gives another, from the British
word Lhong, a ship, and Dinas a city,
and then the word London will signify
a city or harbour for ships: and indeed
it has been supposed by many learned au-
thors, that before Cæsar's time London
was the ancient emporium or mart of the
British trade with the Phœnicians, Greeks
and Gauls.
London had however no buildings ei-
ther of brick or stone, till it was inha-
bited by the Romans; for the dwellings
of the Britons were only huts formed of
|
| | twigs |
|
| L O N | 3 |
twigs wattled together; however, Tacitus
observes, that in the year 26, Londinum
was very famous for the multitude of its
merchants, and the greatness of its traffic;
but soon after Suetonius abandoned the
city to the fury of Boadicea, because it was
too large to be defended by his little army
of 10,000 Romans, which is certainly a
proof of its being even then of a consider-
able extent. That British Princess how-
ever burnt this great city, and put all the
inhabitants to the sword.
London soon recovered from this dread-
ful catastrophe, and in a few years in-
creased so much in the number of its in-
habitants, its trade and buildings, that
Herodian, in the life of the Emperor Se-
verus, calls it a great and wealthy city,
and about this time it changed the name
of Londinum, for that of Augusta; pro-
bably from its being the capital of the
British dominions, and was made a pre-
fecture by the Romans, in imitation of
Rome itself: but it soon after changed
the name of Augusta for that of Caer-
Llundain.
It will not be improper here to observe,
that a dispute has arisen about the situa-
tion of this city in these early times; the
Rev. and learned Dr. Gale, Dean of York,
and Mr. Salmon, having offered many
|
| B 2 | arguments |
|
HomeVolume IVPage Group 1 - 19
