A HISTORY OF DEVONSHIRE 



varia (Dorchester) and Isca Dunmoniorum (Exeter) via Moridunum — 

 supposed by some authorities to be either Honiton or Hembury Castle near 

 by ; and there was the main line of the Fosse Way joining the other road 

 somewhere near Moridunum. The united road passed through Exeter, 

 continued in a direct line over Haldon to the ford of the Teign, near 

 Chudleigh, crossed Dartmoor as the great central trackway to the vicinity 

 of Tavistock, took the lowest ford on the Tamar, and finally passed along the 

 backbone of Cornwall to Mount's Bay/ 



The Romans doubtless greatly improved the old British trackways, but 

 they appear to have done but little road-making, for the only evidence of this 

 west of Exeter was rendered by the rebuilding of Teign Bridge in 1815, 

 when Roman foundations of a previous structure were discovered. This 

 may mean either a new road tapping South Devonshire from Exeter to this 

 point, or the improvement of a British route. 



The Roman bridge over the Teign is supposed to be the furthest point 

 in a westerly direction to which the Romans carried their strictly Roman 

 road, or improved British road. Beyond this the road followed the devious 

 winding and irregular course which characterizes a British trackway. 



Lists of tumuli, hut circles, kistvaens, stone circles, etc., will be found 

 appended to the article on the Ancient Earthworks of the county. 



Note on the Stone Rows of Dartmoor 



Small menhirs set in single, double, and even up to eight lines of stones, 

 and usually starting from a circle of upright stones or from a cairn or kistvaen, 

 and often ending in a similar manner, form the well-known Stone Avenues or 

 Stone Rows. They are of varying lengths and point in no settled direction. 

 The longest is a single row on Stalldon Moor (O.S. 1 1 3 SW.) which, starting 

 from a stone circle, is clearly visible for a mile and a half — it probably 

 extended for another three-quarters of a mile and terminated at a kistvaen. 

 There are some fifty of these stone rows on Dartmoor.** Although the 

 particular meaning of these monuments is at present not definitely known, 

 the recent attempt to invest them with an astronomical use is speculative 

 and can hardly be borne out by a close study of these alignments. 



' R. N. Worth in Tfons. Devon. Assoc, xxiii, 59. 



' For list of the more important stone rows see Rowe's Perambulation of Dartmoor, 1896, pp. 409-13. 



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