ROMAN ROADS 279 



chuse for their best advantages." A century later, a Reporter 

 contrasts the state of a district near Norwich in the last decade of 

 the eighteenth century with its condition before 1760 : " Thirty 

 years ago," he says, " it was an extensive heath without either 

 tree or shrub, only a sheep-walk to another farm. Such a number 

 of carriages crossed it, that they would sometimes be a mile abreast 

 of each other in search of the best track. Now there is an excellent 

 turnpike road, enclosed on each side with a good quickset hedge, 

 and the whole laid out in enclosures and cultivated in the Norfolk 

 system in superior style." Instead of these common tracks, with 

 their wide margins of deviation, enclosure Acts substituted defined 

 and constructed roads. Not only was science needed for making 

 new highways, but the existing machinery for maintaining those 

 already in existence had broken down under the stress of modern 

 needs. 



Throughout the Middle Ages the great Roman roads were the main 

 thoroughfares. Watling Street ran from Kent to Chester and York, 

 branching northwards to Carlisle and Newcastle ; the Fosse Way 

 crossed England from Bath to Lincoln ; Ermine Street led from 

 London to Lincoln and thence to Doncaster and York ; Icknield 

 Street, more difficult to trace, swept inland from Norwich, passed 

 through Dunstable, and ultimately reached Southampton. For 

 centuries they required and received little repair owing to the 

 solidity of their construction. A firm foundation of beaten earth 

 was secured. On this were laid, first, large stones, often embedded 

 in mortar ; then a layer of small stones mixed with mortar ; above 

 these two layers, lime mixed with chalk and pounded brick, or with 

 gravel, sand, and clay ; and finally the paved surface. 



Planned and built by the State, these Roman highways offered 

 a striking contrast to the subsequent roads, which were laid out in 

 haphazard fashion as need arose. The art of road-making was lost, 

 or the cost beyond the reach of local effort. Unmetalled tracks 

 crept along the edges of streams, which often afforded a better 

 bottom than the ways themselves, or sought sound foothold for 

 men and beasts across unenclosed land, or boldly kept on high ground 

 to escape the bogs and quagmires. Gradually footways, horseways, 

 and cartways l were levelled by traffic across the plains or hollowed 



1 The Romans recognised the same distinctions. The iter, actus, and via 

 were the English footpath, bridle-way, and carriage road. Both in Roman and 

 in English law the greater included the less, so that the via was open, not only 

 to vehicles, but to foot-passengers and animals. 



