98 THE DOVER ROAD 



junction was effected near Dartford. But Avith its 

 proximity to London, the story and the geography of 

 WatHng Street grow not a httle confused. Where, for 

 instance, the succeeding station of Noviomagus was 

 situated no one can say with certainty. It might have 

 been at Keston ; it probably was at Crayford ; or there 

 inight have been two branches again, as some anti- 

 quaries suggest. Through London, the Wathng Street 

 went across England, past St. Albans and Wroxeter, 

 and finally to Segontium, or the hither side of the 

 Menai Straits, throwing off a branch to Deva, Chester. 



This and other great roads grew gradually to per- 

 fection throughout the country for four hundred years. 

 Towns and military stations dotted them at intervals, 

 and in between the abodes of men the way was lined, 

 after the custom of the Roman people, with tombs 

 and cemeteries. This explains the many '' finds " 

 of sepulchral urns and various relics beside the road. 



When the Saxons came, they could not pronounce 

 the name by which the half-Roman people called this 

 road, and so " Gwyddelin " became " watling " on 

 their tongues, while " strata " was corrupted to 

 " street." No new roads were made now, and, 

 indeed, not until the Turnpike Acts of George the 

 Third's time and the era of MacAdam was the art of 

 road-making practised again in England. For ages 

 the " roads " of this country were a byword and 

 a reproach to us. By the middle of the twelfth 

 century the Roman roads that had been made and 

 kept in repair for hundreds of years fell into ruin, 

 and the detritus and miscellaneous accumulations of 

 twenty-five generations now cover the greater portion 

 of them. At a depth varying from five to fourteen, 

 and even eighteen, feet, excavators have come upon 

 the hard surface of the original Roman road, and 

 mosaic pavements of villas found at that extreme 

 depth attest how the surface of a country may be 

 altered only by the gradual deposit of vegetable 

 matter. The thickest deposits are found in low-lying 



