sed
above the surface of the neighbouring land, and ran from station to
station in a straight course, almost regardless of hills. The more
important lines were elaborately constructed with a foundation of
hard earth, a bed of large stones, sometimes two more layers of rough
stones and mortar, then gravel, lime, and clay; and, above all, the
causeway was paved with flat stones. The width was generally about
fifteen feet, and at regular intervals were posting stations. The
distance was regularly marked off by milestones (_mille passuum_--a
thousand paces). The principal roads were four in number, viz.,
Watling Street, the Fosse Way, Icknield Street, and Ermine Street.

Originally, Watling Street probably ran from London to Wroxeter. Its
northward and westward continuations proceeded from Wroxeter into
Wales; its southern continuations between London, Canterbury and the
parts about Dover seem also to have received the same name.

Drayton, in his Polyolbion, XIII (1613), says:

"Those two mighty ways, the Watling and the Fosse ... the first
doth hold her way
From Dover to the furth'st of fruitful Anglesey;
The second, north and south, from Michael's utmost mount,
To Caithness, which the farth'st of Scotland we account."

The Fosse ran from the sea-coast at Seaton, in Devonshire, (R.
Maridunum) to Leicester, with a continuation known as High Street, to
the Humber.

The Icknield Way seems to have extended from east to west from
Icilgham, or Icklingham, near Bury St. Edmunds, underneath the chalk
ridge of the Chilterns and Berkshire Downs, to the neighbourhood of
Wantage, thence to Cirencester and Gloucester.

The Ermine Street ran north and south through the Fenland from London
to Lincoln.

Besides the four great lines there were many scarcely subordinate
ones. There were, _e.g._, several Icknield Streets. Akeman Street ran
from Bath, north-east by Cirencester, through Wych-wood Forest and
Blenheim to Alcester and Watling Street. A high-road ran from Exeter
to the Land's End in continuation of the Fosse. Another route ran
from Venta Silurum to St. David's Head; another to the Sarn Helen up
the western Welsh coast to Carnarvon (Welsh, _sarn_--a road).

ROMAN INFLUENCE.

To a certain extent the conqueror enters into the entail of the
conquered. Nevertheless he must obey the conditions of life which the
natural features, or the climate of the country of which he has
possessed himself, have c