WATLING STREET 61 



was not straight, but re-aligned in some four limbs or 

 individually straight stretches, partly to avoid going- 

 over the extreme crest of Swanscombe Hill. On the 

 shoulder of that hill there was at the time of the road 

 being made or remodelled by the Romans a British 

 village, established inland here away from the Thames 

 estuary probably as being a safer place than any 

 settlement by the riverside. 



Here, on the slope of the hill, the Watling Street is 

 cut through by the vastly deep and broad excavation 

 in the chalk made by the activities of the Associated 

 Portland Cement Manufacturers. The construction of 

 it may even thus be studied in section. 



Below, in the levels of Springhead, Avhere a lane takes 

 up the line of the ancient road, there may have been 

 that Roman station called Vagniacce ; although it may 

 possibly have been by the waterside at Northfleet or 

 Southfleet, for it is by no means certain that the 

 Romans themselves had no lesser riverside route along 

 the line of the present Dover Road. However, to 

 lay down a dogma upon so uncertain a matter as the 

 Roman road-system in Britain proves to be would not 

 commend itself to those best qualified by study to 

 judge. 



From Springhead the Watling Street continued 

 through Cobham Park, and so at length to a junction 

 with the Dover Road, as already noted, at Strood. 



IMeanwhile, the more or less modern highway goes on 

 through a dusty district where the builder is contending 

 with the country, and, judging from appearances, he 

 seems likely to get the best of it. All around are 

 glimpses of the Heath, and problematical-looking 

 settlements of houses and institutions are grouped 

 together on the sky-line, with weird, bottle-like towers, 

 extravagantly grotesque, like the architecture of a 

 nightmare, or " Ahce in Wonderland." The City of 

 London Lunatic Asylum is here beside the road ; 

 penitentiaries and their like are grouped about ; 

 a huge black windmill stands awfully on the Brent ; 



