24 BURTON, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
have detected traces of Roman masonry. I fear all oppor- 
tunity of making such an examination has now gone for 
ever, though I often in crossing the present bridge look at 
the remaining foundations of two piers in the western 
branch of the river, which in the late years of drought 
have generally been uncovered, and wish they could be 
thoroughly examined by some expert archeologist. Mr. 
Molyneux fondly clings to the idea that the bridge was “a 
common highway of the country long before the date of 
Wulfric Spott’s foundation of the Abbey,” and this means, 
as he explains in another place, that it was of Roman 
origin. Well, if as I have suggested any trace of Roman 
masonry in the foundations can be found, I should consider 
the question settled. But in the absence of any such 
evidence I consider the probabilities are all the other way. 
If the Romans had found it worth while to make a bridge 
here they would almost certainly have made a direct road 
to it from the important town of Leicester through Ashby, 
but there is no trace or tradition of there having been such 
a road from Ashby hither. I need hardly tell you that 
what we call the Ashby Road for more than a mile from 
the Bridge End, is of very modern date. Thirty years ago 
old inhabitants still called it the ‘“‘New Road,” and for 
aught I know some may do so still. It is I believe about 
sixty’ years since it was constructed. The road which it 
superseded—the old mail coach road from Ashby—still 
exists under the names of ‘‘High Bank Road” and ‘‘Bearwood 
Hill,” there being a sharp angle where the two meet at a 
point where a dissenting chapel now stands. This is very 
unlike the kind of road the Romans would have been likely 
to make. Moreover, the deep cutting for the Bearwood 
Hill Road is probably of comparatively recent date, as I 
understand it still bears marks which shew that it was made 
by blasting. The natural and probably the original con- 
tinuation of what we know as “High Bank Road” was through 
