204 EOMAN OCCUPATION OF CORNWALL. 



The great military roads of our Eoman conquerors extended 

 no further west than Exeter. From thence a road of inferior 

 construction passed over Great Haldon by Newton Abbot to the 

 Eoman Station at Totnes on the Dart, the foundations of a 

 bridge in Eoman masonry having been foimd at Newton Abbot. 

 Westward of Totnes, the ancient native track-ways only were 

 used by the Eomans as far as their Stations extended. These 

 trackways were generally carried along the crests of the hills, 

 and therefore called Eidge-ways, thus the wooded valleys 

 were avoided and the construction of bridges not required. The 

 old Lands-end road from Stratton westward is a Eidge-way 

 throughout, and passes over an open country with few impedi- 

 ments, with strongly built Hill castles of earthwork, about 12 

 miles apart from Ditchen hills near Hartland to Carn Brea 

 castle, we must therefore infer it to be an ancient military 

 highway of the early British period, and available either for 

 conquest or retreat. Opposite the Eoman Station of Tamerton 

 (Tamara) there is a remarkable ridge-road which extends from 

 Landulph, north of Gallington, by Five-Lanes, to join the old 

 Lands- end road near Davidstow ; a distance of 26 miles without 

 crossing a single valley. This may have been a branch from 

 the main trunk. But a more direct trackway probably extended 

 from Tamara to Voluba, and Cenia. All these stations are, 

 however, at the head of navigable rivers, a position which would 

 enable the Eomans to reach them by water, if foiled on the 

 land. 



The Eoman coins and personal ornaments found in the Tin 

 stream works, are very suggestive of a trade with the Tinners, 

 and of the visits of persons of quality to the works. 



It appears, however, certain that the Britons of the extreme 

 west, under their native princes and with the aid of their 

 numerous hill castles, maintained a sort of rough independence 

 during the whole period of the Eoman occupation of Britain, 

 and that more or less firmly they held the whole country west- 

 ward of Exeter ; and it was not until the reign of Athelstan, 

 (A.D. 925) that they were driven back beyond the Tamar. 



In confirmation of this opinion we find the native Princes 

 supporting the native Bishops of the ancient British church, then 

 existing in Cornwall, and refusing obedience to the Eoman See ; 



