6 
by crushing and levelling of the surface of the rock in order 
to secure a level bed for the roadway. This difference is 
important, as the evidence in favour of the road on Clifton 
Down being Roman is strong, and on the theory mentioned 
above it would have formed part of this same fourteenth 
ten 
While therefore it is difficult to account for the presence 
of these stones on any other theory, they are clearly not in 
themselves sufficient proof that this lane was ever a Roman 
road. If this was the case we must, I think, conclude that 
they represent not the surface but the bottom layer of the 
road, the upper layers having been denuded away. In the 
Fosse Road, however, which has been re-opened this summer 
with results entirely similar to those recorded before, the 
bottom layer was formed of much larger stones. The 
character of the pitching can be inferred from the photograph, 
which shows what appears to be the bottom of a wheel rut. 
There are indications of another rut running parallel with 
this at a distance of 4 feet, but they are not very definite. 
Under the stones were found two horseshoe nails, which are 
probably Roman. 
So far then the evidence is not conclusive, but our examina- 
tion of the steep scarp where the lane ends and descends the 
hill abruptly by a narrow sunken path towards the Weston 
lane afforded evidence that was more definite. 
Assuming that this lane represents the line of the Roman 
road, it has been difficult to see how it negotiated the 
descent, and it has been thought that it possibly avoided 
the hill by turning abruptly to the south and following the 
ridge in the direction of Pen Hill. Trenches were therefore 
cut where the grass lane ends and the sunken path begins 
to descend the steep face of the hill, and the pitching was 
found to continue in the direction of the path, making 
the theory of a turn to the south impossible. Moreover, 
at the point where the path begins the descent it is 
bounded on the south side by a narrow bank on which 
bushes are now growing. This bank is in continuation of 
the line of the grass lane, and it was found to be pitched 
in the same manner as the lane. Under the stones of the 
pitching was found another horseshoe nail. It is, perhaps, 
impossible to say positively that this nail was Roman, but it 
is quite certain that no rider could have possibly ridden over 
this bank within the last few hundred years. 
