10 ON THE ROMAN MILITARY ROAD 
the reason why the modern road should have 
deviated from the Roman road in the valley, 
when it has so closely adhered to the line on the 
heights. If we have at all attended to the nature 
of the ground in the valley, we may have noticed 
that it is intersected with numerous brooks, rills, 
and rivulets, which run down to the main stream 
at the bottom of the valley in very deep channels, 
with very steep banks. Now, though these banks 
might offer no insurmountable obstacles to the 
hardy and enterprising Roman soldiery, nor to 
their beasts of burden, when the road along them 
was well paved and in good repair, they still 
might be serious impediments to the progress of 
the Pack horse between Blackburn and Manches- 
ter, without such advantages: and therefore the 
line might be relinquished for one more circuitous, 
where no such impediments intervened. This 
seems a very probable reason, when we look at 
the places where the present road crosses these 
brooks, rills, and water courses, which are no 
farther from the line of the Roman road than the 
very nearest points where the channels offer no 
obstructions. 
From the highest part of the road at Blacksnape, 
we see the dense smoke of Blackburn in the low 
