ISLINGTON, (Middlesex) on the N. side of London, to which it is almost contiguous, appears to be of Saxon origin; and, in
the Conqueror's time, was written Isledon, or Isendon. The Ch. is one of the prebends of St. Paul's; to the D. and C. of
which a certain precinct here bel. for the probate of wills, and granting administrations. Its houses are near 700,
including the Upper and Lower Holloways, 3 sides of Newington-Green, and part of Kingsland, on the road to Ware. In the S.
W. part of this village is that noble reservoir, improperly called New-River-Head; tho' they are only 2 basons, which
receive that r. from Hartfordshire, and from whence the water is thrown by an engine into the company's pipes, for the
supply of London. In the reed-moat on the N. side of these basons, called Six-Acre-Field, from the contents of it, which
is the 3d field beyond the White-Conduit, there appears to have been a fortress in former days, inclosed with a rampart
and ditch, which is supposed to have been a Roman camp, made use of by Suetonius Paulinus, after his retreat, which
Tacitus mentions, from Loadon, before he sallied thence, and routed the Britons, under their Q. Boadicea; and that which
is vulgarly, but erroneously, called Jack Straw's Castle, in a square place in the S. W. angle of the field, is supposed
to have been the seat of the Roman general's pretorium, or tent. In this p. are two ch. scs. an hos. with its chapel, an
almsh. and a workhouse for the poor.