92 THE EXETER ROAD 



this hollow, and banking up the end of it ; nearly a 

 hundred years since the Ruined Temple was Ijuilt as 

 a ready-made ruin ;'and there is no more, nor indeed 

 any other such, delightful spot near London. It is 

 quite a pity to come by the knowledge that the ruins 

 were imported from Greece and Carthage, because 

 without that knowledge who knows what romance 

 could not be weaved around those graceful columns, 

 amid the waters and the wilderness ? Beyond Virginia 

 Water we come to Sunnino-dale. 



From Turnham Green to Staines, and thence to 

 Shrub's Hill ^Ye are on the old Roman Road to that 

 famous tow^n which has been known at different 

 periods of its existence as Aquae Solis, Akemanceaster, 

 and Bath. The Saxons called the road Akeman Street. 

 Commencing at a junction with the Roman Watling 

 Street at the point where the Marble Arch now stands, 

 it proceeded along the Bayswater Road, and so by 

 Notting Hill, past Shepherd's Bush, and along the 

 Goldhawk Road, where, instead of turning sharply to 

 the left like the existino' road that leads to Youno-'s 

 Corner, it continued its straight course through the 

 district now occupied by the modern artistic colony 

 of Bedford Park, falling into the present Chiswick 

 High Road somewhere between Turnham Green and 

 Gunnersbury. Through Brentford, Hounslow, and 

 Staines the last vestig-es of the actual Roman Road 

 were lost in the alterations carried out for the 

 improvement of the highw^ay under the provisions of 

 the Hounslow and Basingstoke Road Improvement 

 Act of 1728, but there can be little doubt that the 

 road traffic of to-day from Hounslow to Shrub's Hill 



