[Gutenberg 61127] • London and Its Environs Described, vol. 4 (of 6) / Containing an Account of Whatever is Most Remarkable for Grandeur, Elegance, Curiosity or Use, in the City and in the Country Twenty Miles Round It

London, the metropolis of Great Britain, and one of the largest and richest cities upon earth, is of such antiquity that it is impossible to give any certain account of its origin. It probably existed in the time of the ancient Britons, before the art of writing was brought into England, and when there were no other monuments of ancient facts, than what were found in the songs of the bards, which were preserved only by memory."It would be ridiculous therefore to lay any stress on the fabulous tales of Geffry of Monmouth, who pretends that it was founded by Brutus, the second nephew of the famous �neas, and called Trinovantum, or New Troy, and that it was at length walled by King Lud, when it obtained the name of Caer Lud, or 2Lud's Town. Upon which suppositions some of our later historians have had the weakness to compute, that it had its origin 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.