St. Luke, from St. Chad’s Gospel Book, date about 700 A.D. 221
The Famous “Book of Kells” MS. of the Gospels in Latin, written in Ireland (A.D. 650-690) 237
Rood over the South Door of Stepney Church 239
Ancient Enamelled Ouche in Gold discovered near Dowgate Hill; probably Ninth Century 243
An Ancient Comb found in the Ruins of Ickleton Nunnery 244
King Harold shown in a Mêlée of Fighting-Men 251
Charter of the City of London given by William the Conqueror 252
Harold trying to pull the Arrow from his Eye 255
William the Conqueror and his Knights (from the Bayeux Tapestry) 257
The Seal of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, Half-brother of William I. 259
William I. and II., Henry I. and Stephen _Facing_ 264
Norman Capitals from Westminster Hall 273
Norman Arch, in the Cloisters, Westminster Abbey _Facing_ 276
An Ancient Seal of Robert, Fifth Baron FitzWalter 281
Costume of English Kings of the Eleventh Century. Anglo-Norman Ladies of High Degree _Facing_ 292
St. John’s Chapel, Tower of London, Norman Architecture 295
March. Field Work. September. Boar-Hunting 303
The buildings of a town often succeed in masking the minor physical features of its site—irregularities are levelled, brooks are hidden beneath arches and find ignominious ends in sewers; canals, quays, and terrace walls may be wholly artificial. To realise completely the original contours of the ground is often a laborious process, demanding inductive reasoning on the evidence obtained in sinking wells, in digging the foundations of the larger buildings, or in making cuttings and tunnels. Still the broader and bolder features cannot be obscured, however thick the encrusting layer of masonry may be. What, then, are these in the case of Greater London? Its site is a broad valley, along the bed of which a tidal river winds in serpentine curves as its channel widens and deepens towards the sea. On either side of this valley the ground slopes upwards, though for a while very gently, towards a hilly district, which rises, sometimes rather steeply, to a height of about 400 feet above sea-level. Towards the north this district passes into an undulating plateau, the chalky uplands of Hertfordshire; on the south it ends in a more sharply defined range, which occasionally reaches an elevation of about 800 feet above the sea—the North Downs. The upland declines a little, the valley broadens towards the sea, as the river changes into an estuary. Between the one and the other there is no very hard and fast division; the ground by the side of each is low, but as a rule by the river it is just high enough to be naturally fit for cultivation, while by the estuary it is a marsh. But as the ground becomes more salubrious, the channel becomes more shallow, and at one place, a short distance above the confluence of a tributary stream from the north—the Lea—this change in the character of the valley is a little more rapid than elsewhere.