hich are preserved in the Cambridge University Library, that Royston
Heath and the road _across it_--for the Heath was then on both sides of
the Baldock Road--and especially that part of the road along what was
then known as Odsey Heath, near the present Ashwell Railway Station,
was at that time (and also later) infested by highwaymen, whom the old
_Chronicle_ describes as "wearing oil-skin hoods over their faces, and
well-mounted and well-spoken."

Intimately connected with the old locomotion, and with the exploits of
highwaymen, were the landmarks, such as old mile-stones and old
hostelries, the one to tell the pace of the traveller, and the other to
invite a welcome halt by the way!

Those who have travelled much along the old turnpike road from Barkway
by the Flint House to Cambridge, must have noticed the monumental
character of the mile-stones with their bold Roman figures, denoting
the distances. These mile-stones, an old writer says, were the first
set up in England. I do not know whether this be true or not, but as
the writer at the same time commented upon the system adopted {16} of
marking the stones with Roman figures, and as the mile-stones still
remaining along that road bear dates, in Roman figures, between thirty
and forty years before the time the above was written, they must be the
identical stones he is referring to.

The following particulars of these old milestones (contributed by Mr.
W. M. Palmer, of Charing Cross Hospital, London) are taken from the MS.
collections for a History of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. [Add. MSS.,
5859, Brit. Mus.]

Dr. William Mowse, Master of Trinity Hall (1586), and Mr. Robert Hare
(1599), left 1,600 pounds in trust to Trinity Hall, the interest of
which was to mend the highways "in et circa villam nostram Cantabrigiae
praecipue versus Barkway."

On October 20th, 1725, Dr. Wm. Warren, Master of Trinity Hall, had the
first five mile-stones set up, starting from Great St. Mary's Church.

On June 25th, 1726, another five stones were set up. And on June 15th,
1727, five more were set up. The sixteenth mile was measured and ended
at the sign of the Angel, at Barkway, but no stone was then set up.

Of these stones, the fifth, tenth, and fifteenth, were large stones,
each about six feet high, and having the Trinity Hall arms cut on them,
viz., sable, a crescent in Fess ermine, with a bordure engrailed of the
2nd. The others were small, having simply the number of mile