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no Roman roads at all existed in this parish at the time he 
was employed on his Loides and Elmete. 
It is unnecessary to multiply instances of the unsatisfactory 
allusions to this subject which are found in the local topo- 
graphies of our neighbourhood, and which so much discourage 
any further inquiry into the ancient roads of our district. 
But I may add other obstacles and difficulties which, in more 
recent times, have been thrown in the way of the subject on 
which we are engaged. They are of the kind which have 
arisen from the operation of the general and local Turnpike 
Acts, passed in the reign of Geo. IY., by which the repair 
and improvement of highways was vested in trustees. That 
the trustees, appointed for the purpose, energetically em- 
ployed the powers entrusted to them, the highways of this 
district abundantly show. Such have been the renovations, 
reconstructions, diversions, and enclosures, directed by the 
Acts referred to, that the highways which formerly retained 
their ancient pavements, as a general rule, no longer exhibit 
any of the usual characteristics of either British or Roman 
roads. Several instances occur in this parish, of the Com- 
missioners of Turnpike Trusts, in carrying on the repairs 
of highways of known antiquity, under their supervision, 
having unavoidably, no doubt, obliterated all traces of 
ancient construction, which old and still living witnesses 
remember to have existed before the passing of the local 
Turnpike Acts. 
Warburton, the author of an account of the Roman wall 
and a herald, I believe living in the 17th century, says, 
in a MS. work of his, preserved in the British Museum, 
that when he traced the military way from Aldborough to 
Manchester, through this parish, it was paved all the way. 
The pavement of the iter from Ilkley to Manchester may 
still be seen in Fincle-street, in the township of Sowerby, 
and elsewhere along its course. 
