Beneath these vestiges of a vanished civilisation were Britons, with ivory and wooden pins showing that their shrouds had been laid in rows. Below these were Roman remains and pieces of Roman pavement. Beneath these Wren found sand and seashells. Ludgate Hill had once been under the sea. A trackway from the Bronze Age has been found on the Isle of Dogs. Gravel streets from the Anglo-Saxon period follow the course of Maiden Lane and Shorts Gardens, Floral Street and King Street; the houses along Drury Lane were 39 feet long, 18 feet wide. The bustling life persists, but the evidence for it has gone under the ground. We are treading upon our ancestors. As soon as the original city was built above the ground it began to sink. As it descended beneath the earth ground-floor rooms were transformed into basements, and the front door became the door to the cellar; the first floor was then the street level. The oldest of these remains now lie some 26 feet beneath the surface. The whole history of the city is compressed to little less than 30 feet.
