succeeding authorities. That
it _is_ an error, at least with regard to the Icknield Way and the
Fosse Way, is sufficiently proved by the various mediaeval charters
which mention these roads in connection with localities along their
course as assigned by our received geography.

As to the main Watling Street there is no dispute. Running right
across the island from the Irish Sea[191] to the Straits of Dover, it
suggested to the minds of our English ancestors the shining track of
the Milky Way from end to end of the heavens. Even so Chaucer, in his
'House of Fame,' sings:

"Lo there!" quod he, "cast up your eye,
Se yonder, lo! the Galaxie,
The whiche men clepe the Milky Way,
For it is white, and some, parfay,
Y-callen han it Watlinge-strete."

At Dover it still retains its name, and so it does in one part of its
course through London (which it enters as the Edgware Road, and leaves
as the Old Kent Road).[192]

A. 4.--This name, like that of the Ermine Street, is most probably
derived from Teutonic mythology; the "Watlings" being the patrons of
handicraft in the Anglo-Saxon Pantheon, and "Irmin" the War-god from
whom "Germany" is called.[193] There is no reason to suppose that
the roads of Britain had any Roman name, like those of Italy. The
designations given them by our English forefathers show how deeply
these mighty works impressed their imagination. The term "street"
which they adopted for them shows, as Professor Freeman has pointed
out, that such engineering ability was something quite new to their
experience.[194] It is the Latin "Via _strata_" Anglicized, and
describes no mere track, but the elaborately constructed Roman
causeway, along which the soft alluvium was first dug away, and
its place taken by layers of graduated road metal, with the surface
frequently an actual pavement.[195]

A. 5.--For the assignment of the name Ermine Street to the Great North
Road there is no ancient authority.[196] All we can say is that this
theory is more probable than that set forth by Geoffrey of Monmouth.
That the road existed in Roman times is certain, as London and York
were the two chief towns in the island; and direct communication
between them must have been of the first importance, both for military
and economical reasons. Indeed it is probably older yet. (See p. 117.)
But, with the exceptions already pointed out, the nomenclature of the
Romano-British roads is almost wholly guess-work. Some archaeologic