12 ON THE ROMAN MILITARY ROAD 
are generally about farm steads and houses. For 
there cultivation cannot be carried on. And I 
have oftentimes in investigating the remains of 
the line been glad to see an outbuilding or house 
upon it, where all traces in the fields had been 
lost, because, then I anticipated another link to 
the chain of evidence, and seldom have I been 
disappointed in not finding one. At Davy Field, 
the line falls in again with the modern road. We 
here learned from the farmer, who was very civil 
and communicative when he understood our busi- 
ness, that the present road was very dificult to 
keep in repair; that notwithstanding all their 
attempts to improve it, they had failed ; because 
the old road which we were enquiring about was 
underneath it, as far as the first turn, and being 
paved with large rough stones, the broken stones 
laid upon them were soon ground to pieces by the 
wheels of the vehicles which passed over the road, 
and until lately the reason was not known; but 
being threatened with an indictment, they had 
dug down to see what the road ailed, and thus had 
ascertained the fact he mentioned. At the turn 
in the road, the Roman road keeps to the right, 
and forms a stony line across the field to the 
river Darwen. Again, beyond the river it falls 
in with the modern road, showing traces at the 
