NOTE ON A ROMAN ROAD. 153 



transcribed by the copyist in the one omitting the letter X, in the 

 other substituting I for L. 



I leave this very interesting subject for our next meeting, and 

 in the meanwhile invite the co-operation of the antiquarian 

 members of the club in following up the line of the road to its 

 northern destination, which, as I have already hinted, points 

 directly to Bath. 



The interest taken in the discovery of the road is very hopeful. 



The above paper led to a considerable amount of discussion : 

 The SECRETARY said that the Roman road was thought by the president 

 to have some connection with the road which traversed the Mendip Hills 

 from the sea at Weston-super-Mare to their most easterly termination. 

 This latter road, however, pointed to Old Sarum as its destination, and was 

 considered by competent archaeologists to have been connected by another 

 road with the Hampshire coast opposite the Isle of Wight, where there 

 was an emporium from which the mineral produce of the Mendip Hills 

 might be shipped off to the Continent. The Roman road along the Mendip 

 Hills passed in its course many traces of Roman civilization, evidenced by 

 the camps and fortified positions, the lead mines and smelting furnaces 

 with their heaps of cinders and ashes and pigs of lead which have been 

 occasionally found. 



Prebendary SCAETH, in the course of a short address on the subject 

 given at the evening meeting at Chard on July 12th, said the Roman 

 roads of Britain had never worked out properly. It was not so difficult 

 as might be supposed, since these roads had certain fixed points of 

 destination through the country. They had the itinera ; at York, 

 Lincoln, Carlisle, Manchester, Chester, Gloucester, and in the South of 

 England generally are points where these roads meet, and they might be 

 traced at intervals. The lines of roads would not be continuous, but still 

 they could be traced, and in doing so they would get much aid from the 

 histories of Britain, in which they could trace pretty accurately the routes 

 taken by the armies in former times. From the examination of these roads 

 one thing became evident the Roman engineers must have had a clear 

 geographical knowledge, and must have been well acquainted with 

 geometry. Engineering in those days was a subject as carefully gone into 

 by the Roman governors of this country as in modern times. He would 

 urge local societies such as their own to take up this matter, and he thought 

 they might be very successful in their investigations. 



