Originally published in Ainsworth's Magazine: A Miscellany of Romance (Chapman and Hall) vol.10 #1 (1846).
La Pika Duile He, or La Pika Dilê Hé (The Peak of the Black Head) stood at the end of Dover-street, where the upland falls naturally to the plain, for a long period after the Romans left Great Britain. At that time the neighbourhood was forest land, and a broad sheet of water covered St. James's Park. Little ahead, floated at its ease, free and unincumbered of houses and inhabitants, the green and lovely island of Thorney. The whole of these extensive plains, from Hampstead Heath and all the near eminences, to the valley of the Thames, were full of rivulets and brooks of water; nor were there ranting large rivers, now done to death, to throw their beauty upon the country. Taking its rise from the same source, where the Storr and the Lee, the Gave and the Thames have theirs, a large river, rapid but not deep, whose name is now forgotten, had its origin. Early in its course forming the Bed of Ware, it flowed past the town of the same name, and, crossing the country westward, it passed the town of Edgware. It thence took its way across the fields lying between that town, and the hill upon which Harrow stands, and so to Bayswater, formed the water called the Serpentine, and, falling down in cascades to Knightsbridge, flowed thence through woods into the River Thames between Thorney Island and Chelsea. This river's name was "Ware." Besides there was an island, the Gor, or Gore, situated between the waterfalls of the Ware and the Countess Creek, and another between the Countess Creek and Hammersmith Creek.
Opposite Thorney Island was Lamb's Heath (Lambeth). Across it, issuing from Brixton Wash, into which, from inland, entered the Effra, flowed a river called the Stean, or Stan. In its course it was the parent of a lake (Lambeth Marsh), and entered the Thames at Stangate Creek. Adjoining Lamb's Heath, which in extenso formed a part of them, were the Urz i Li (Horselydown) Wild Boar Plains. Here were lakes from which the parent stream had not been diverted. The names of Loman's Pond and Maze Pond are now to be found. Here was an upland, which still retains the name of hill (St. Margaret's-at-Hill), though whether hill, or cliff, or a bank by the river's side in Roman times, no record says. In time after the tower the Roman erected, which from its excellence was called the Wark, southwards began to be built a town called Southwark, and afterwards Bergen, or Berm on der Zee (Bermondsey).
What was the state of the river? Has that undergone no change? No question, that the power and force of the water, its extent, as well as depth, were much greater. Not a river! Say an inland sea. Even as high as Chelsea and Battersea, whose names confirm it, it was a sea.
Descending from that lovely vale, where in Caen Wood it takes its rise, the Fleet, a stream, like the Ware, rapid but not deep, swept along its channel in those plains, which lie at the base of the far-famed hills of Highgate and of Hampstead, so well to cockneys known, where many an idle hour is spent by many an idle man. Its course through woods, in parts scarce was seen, but yet was witness to a desperate battle, which to the neighbourhood still gives the name of Battle Bridge, for here did combat the brave Queen of the Iceni, surnamed Boadicea, or Bonduca (Bona Duca, Good Leader), whose husband, Prasutagus (King of the South Country), was once the ally of a power, with whom, for just cause, he was then at enmity. It thence skirted the edge of a lake, which covered Spa Fields, out of whose bosom rose one or more aytes. Then, with the aid of this lake, and the river of Wells, it formed what we now call Smithfield into an island; a pretty sweet green islet, though now how sadly changed. It then widened, and passed by lofty hills, which were the boundary of the Roman city, whose eminences in comparison with to-day were of an height unparalleled: there deep and profound lay the River Fleet, a port fully capable to contain all the navy of that ancient London.
East and west on either side of the not forgotten Fleet was water in abundance. To the west were Mary's-bourn, Kilburn, and Twyburn, and water which made Primrose Hill an island, and Cranbourn falling down a natural ravine, and many a brook beside. To the east, besides the River of Wells, were two rivulets, which issued from the marshes of the Lee, which then made an island of Hackney. Their names were the Hoon, or Yonne, and the Peer. The first, passing through Worm Wood, skirted the city wall, and gave its name to Houndsditch. The other conferred a name upon the meadows through which it flowed, and, forming Peerly's Pool, passed like the Hoon into other waters.
He who then beheld the country I have described, with all these waters, and these woods, and hills, a woodman, a shepherd, or fisherman, their sole inhabitant, or native Briton, hiding to conceal himself from conquering Roman—he who then beheld the little city by the river's side, but he would look, with wonder and surprise, at rivers gone, at woods cut down, at high hills levelled to an even way, with the great multitude that now we see, whose end and termination is not yet, but promises to increase from year to year, until the doom of this great city comes, even though that increase be a thousand-fold!