gradually obtained from about the year 1550 to 1600; and by the year 1650, the place was seldom, if ever, called by any other name.

In William the Conqueror's famed Survey, styled Domesday-Book, "the most valuable piece of antiquity," says Hume, "possessed by any nation," we find mention once and again of ISENDONE, and yet a third time of the same spot, spelt ISELDONE. But it must not be thence supposed, that a district corresponding in extent with the present parish of Islington is therein depicted or alluded to. Did the contrary not appear from the small quantity of land described, (in all, but five hides, or less than six hundred acres,) it would be evident from the distinct mention of TOLENTONE, where other two hides formed about a fifth part of the present manor of Highbury, itself but one of the six manors into which modern Islington is divided. But four of the five hides said to be "in Isendone" or "Iseldone," are noted as "demesne of the church of St. Paul;" and the situation of the Prebend manor, still attached to that church, seems to show that the "Lower Town" stood on, or contiguous to, that part of the parish; though the curtailment of the manor to one-fourth of the ecclesiastical possessions in the record, adds to the difficulty of conjecturing the exact spot. At all events, the occupation of some part of this manor, or its immediate vicinity, by the antique "Lower Town," would give meaning to that appellation as contrasted with "Tolentone," whose site, there is reason to believe, was the elevated ground adjoining the woods of Highbury. And, perhaps, we should not greatly err, did we place

"old ISELDONE," in part upon a slip of land, forming a portion of the diminished church seigniory, which lies along the east side of the track known, time out of mind, by the name of the Lower Street, and partly along a similar slip lying westward of the same track. Our British town, and the habitations which, till the Couest, succeeded the primeval dwellings on its site, would then extend over a sunny slope, stretching towards the south and east; a species of locality known to have been coveted by our primogenitors for their settlements. There are existing portions of the Prebend manor, particularly the narrow and mazy ways comprehended by Elder Walk and its neighbourhood, which, as they retain the irregular features of the oldest thoroughfares in all ancient towns, may mark the tracks between even the earliest buildings that were there erected. The most ancient parts of the City of London itself, contiguous to the Thames, once wore much such a labyrinthian and little dignified appearance, as Elder Walk, and its vicinity, does at present.

The householders in Iseldone at the time of the Conqueror's survey, were, it seems, twenty-seven in number; of whom, nine are described as "villanes," five were "bordars," and thirteen "cottagers." The aggregate value of the land is given at ninety-two shillings. The greater part was under the plough: but we are told that there was "pasture for the cattle of the village." The two half-hides not belonging to the canons of St. Paul's, were, the one, "land of Geoffry de Mandeville," and held of him by "Gilbert;" the other, "land of Derman Lundonensis,"

who held immediately of the King. Tolentone was also held of the King, by "Ranulf, brother of Ilger;" and, like Iseldone, comprehended both arable and pasture land, valued together at forty shillings. There, too, was "pannage" (forest provender) "for sixty hogs;" a fact from which it appears that Tolentone was then bordered by woods, while the cohtry about Iseldone, though uncultivated, was, no doubt,

open.

We do not hesitate to suppose, that the latter was of the description termed "forest" at that period; meaning, not covered with trees, but in a wild state, -more or less wooded,―unparcelled to individuals, and, consequently, the undenied property of the crown, according to the feudal notions of the times. Such, as observed in the author's "History and Description of Clerkenwell," was then the state of that parish also, though improved into "very pleasant" meadows as it approached the metropolis, in order to furnish common land for the cattle of the citizens. As regards this parish, at the era of the Survey, there can be scarce a question that, Iseldone and Tolentone excepted, it formed part of the great forest of Middlesex; and, waste or furze-grown where not relieved by small clumps of trees or natural pastures, spread into almost unmixed woodland as it stretched northwards, and united with the wide mass of foliage that covered by far the larger portion of the county.

Somewhat more than a century elapsed from the compilation of Domesday-Book to the commencement of the reign of Richard I., when the monk, FitzStephen, wrote his highly interesting description of the London of that date, and introduced a few parti

culars, which, we cannot doubt, bore reference to our parish. He speaks mainly, we must suppose, of what is now called Clerkenwell, when he describes the northern environs of the city as comprising "fields for pasture, and open meadows, very pleasant, among which the river waters do flow, and the wheels of the mills are turned about with a delightful noise 1." But when he treats of the "arable lands," which, he observes, "are no hungry pieces of gravel ground, but like the rich fields of Asia, which bring plentiful corn, and fill the barns of the owners with a dainty crop of the fruits of Ceres," there is equal reason to believe that he is alluding to the ancient plough-lands of Islington. The cultivation of our tract had been greatly extended, of course, by the time of FitzStephen; and when the revolution of another hundred years had brought England to the middle of the reign of her first Edward, the greater part of this parish, it is probable, was under tillage. At least such appears to have been the case with the then manor of Bernersbury; an inquisition of which, taken about the year 1295, returned nearly the whole as corn-land, with a very small proportion of meadow. Of the ancient empire of the forest, there were, perhaps, by that time, remains only in the more northern districts. But before the Elizabethan era, the reputation of Islington for the varied produce of the dairy, rather than "the fruits of Ceres," had become decided: and at the present period, as for many years past, so much does the value of meadow-land excel with us, that we are

1 Vide Hist. Clerkenwell, p. 7.

hardly less surprised at the re-appearance of a field of corn, than we should be at the resurrection of FitzStephen's "woody groves of wild beasts, in the coverts whereof do lurk bucks and does, wild boars, and bulls."

The two most ancient ROADS in the parish, there can be little doubt, were the Lower and Upper Streets; the former of which was the original highway through Iseldone, and the latter a track from it to Tolentone, or Highbury. And to the British period we may also confidently refer the origin of some communication between the Isel-don and Lun-don of that era; a communication upon which, in after times, the Romans might commence their grand northern military way, the Ermin Street. In numerous instances, the Roman roads were constructed upon the lines of more ancient British tracks. The Ermin Street, it has been commonly supposed by antiquaries, left London by Cripple-gate; and some have imagined that it took the way of the present high road through Islington towards Highbury. But Mr. Nelson more plausibly conjectured its route, after intersecting Alde Street (the Old Street of our times), to have been" along the ancient bridle-way leading from Brick Lane, and, crossing the City Road," thence "proceeding by the eastern side of the village." Its track, as connected with Islington, would, according to this description, appear to have been that now marked by Frog Lane, which runs from the bottom of Britannia Row into the Lower Road by the end of Rotherfield Street. The line it then took, in order to "pass by Highbury and Hornsey Wood, and con