282 Soxtth Wilts in Romano- British Times. 



Southampton Water. Wlieii this road appears in S. Wilts we 

 find it above Teffont. 



When it has passed Din ton Beeches we have a fine ))road hard 

 grass road with a bank on each side, going above Chilmark, past 

 the British villages that are aljove Chicklade and on Keesley Down ; 

 then along the ridge in front of Mere Down Farm, and on to 

 White Slieet Castle above Mere. Descending, it passes through 

 Kilmington under the name of Harepath, on the six-inch Ordnance 

 Map, and then under the name of Hardway enters Somerset, and 

 leads to Sheptou Montague and Ilchester. Here it joins the Fosse 

 Koad, and so leads to Devon and Cornwall. Above Teftbnt it is 

 locally known as the " Ox Road," and a branch of it by Monkton 

 Deverell has the same name. 



It was tlie way by which the fat cattle came from the Somerset 

 pastures to London ; just as the track-way in Northamptonshire 

 known as " The Welsh Way," passing by Northampton to Banbury, 

 and thence to the Cotswolds and into Wales, has been used by 

 Welsh drovers. But the best designation whicli we can give it is 

 the " Tin " road, for the economic preponderance of Southern 

 England ^ was largely due to metals, and this is the road to the 

 tin mines of Cornwall. 



Having traced the " Tin " road running south-west to Cornwall, 

 we will now trace that running west to Somerset, which we 

 propose to term the " Lead " road, which the " Tin " road joins at 

 at Dinton Beeches. 



We must now return to Groveley Wood and the Roman road 

 marked in the maps, which we call the " Lead " road. It is a 

 broad grass road, running straight through the heart of the wood. 

 With respect to this road, Mr. T. Codrington writes to me : — " The 

 evidence that this road is Roman is, I think, conclusive as far as 

 Lower Pertwood, both from the manner of setting out its course, 

 and the remains of the ridge which still exist, though much has 

 been destroyed. But you must take the course shown on the old 

 inch Ordnance Map in YiodiXQ' a Ancient Wilts, Roman yEra; not 



» Belloc, The Old Eoad, 12, 13. 



