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ee it
ORIGIN OF THE CITY 35
London retained a
certain importance.
Its situation made it
very accessible for
merchant ships. In
those days a ship
could leave London
and sail almost to
Dover without en¬
countering any open
sea. Dropping down
the Thames with the
ebb-tide, it entered
the Wantsum at
Reculvers, and
emerged at Sand- tehime |! i)) ii)
wich, if not at Rich- | HUT SRA
* u ő
smooth passage
down to the South
Foreland. Notwith¬
standing this mer¬
cantile importance
of London, its de- ALDERMAN’S WALK, BISHOPSGATE STREET
fences were suffered to fall into decay, and the Danes repeatedly broke
in and robbed the citizens. At length their depredations became too
great to be borne, and London was abandoned, and, as Stow tells us,
lay desolate from 839, except when the invaders camped within the