ROMAN ROADS. 243 



name of Ryknield, which accompanies the long way from Caer- 

 marthen to Derby and Chesterfield, ceases before the border of 

 Yorkshire is reached; but 'Watling Street/ a name which is 

 given to the great route from London toward Chester, is not 

 only applied by Leland in Yorkshire to the line which extends 

 from Aldborough by Castleford to Doncaster, but is also found 

 on the line from Aldborough to Ilkley. Another name of the 

 part between Aldborough and Castleford is ' Rudgate/ Wade's 

 Causeway between Malton and Whitby, the Long Causeway 

 west of Sheffield, and a Causeway between Bolton Bridge and 

 Blubberhouses, seem to mark the Roman construction of the 

 roads to which they belong. Upon the whole it seems that the 

 greater part of the old roads may be ascribed to the Romans, 

 and though antiquaries have desired to except from this rule 

 the Fosse, Ermin, Watling, Ryknield and Akeman Streets, it 

 seems hard to conceive that when Britain was held by dissociated 

 tribes, anything more than pathways over the open hills would 

 be traced by commercial necessity from South Wales, Devon- 

 shire, and London, to Lincoln, from North Wales to the coast of 

 Kent, and from London to Bath. But it is easy to see that 

 when Deva, Aqusesolis, Londinium, Verulamium, Camulodunum, 

 and Lindum, became centres of Roman government, they re- 

 quired connexion by Roman roads. 



If we regard as originally British ways, those in which the 

 main feature is a clinging to high ridges of open ground, thickly 

 set with tumuli and earthworks, and which exhibit a negligent 

 flexuosity, such as suits the notion of a customary track, rather 

 than a well-planned and firmly executed road, the old Wold 

 road from York to Bridlington may claim to be such. The old 

 road which runs from Malton by Thornthorpe to Stamford 

 Brig, and by another branch to Acklam Wold, Wilton Beacon, 

 Givendale, Warter and Londesborough, is of this character. 

 The fortified way from Acklam by Sledmere toward Bridlington, 

 and that which runs among entrenchments and camps from 

 Malton by Settrington toward Bridlington, may be put in the 



