196 
Outlane. He corrects Whitaker, of Manchester, for asserting 
that the camp at Kirklees lies about a mile to the south of 
the Roman way (Whitaker would have been nearer the 
mark had he said two). Watson confidently assures us that 
"it is a great mistake to say that this station lies about a 
mile to the south of the Roman way, for this may possibly 
lead some antiquarian to seek for it where he will never find 
it, &c." He traced the road from Manchester to Lindley 
Moor, and, after losing it in the enclosures there, he states 
that he can with certainty say that to the north of Kirklees, 
even as far as Leeds, he could neither meet with the trace of 
it nor any tradition relating to it, though " he repeatedly 
searched for it with the utmost care ; taking the greatest 
pains in the affair on account of what Dr. Richardson had 
said in his letter to Hearn, &c." He doubts the Roman 
character of the camp at Wall Flat ; and evidently sees 
nothing important in the Roman vestigia at Cleckheaton. 
"In a word," he says, " the Roman way from Manchester 
to York seems to have kept the Calder on its left till it crossed 
it about a mile below Dewsbury, and falling in with the 
present turnpike road, follows the course of it to Wakefield, 
having all or most part of the way the name of street ; it is 
known again by the same name about half way between 
Wakefield and Pontefract ; after which it joins the great 
military way between Doncaster and York."* If our worthy 
historian's iter had fallen into a turnpike road, having some 
claim to the character of a long beaten track, and pointing 
direct to York instead of Doncaster, these facts would not 
have been without their importance. But I fear his object 
was rather to write down the only two places between Slack 
and Tadcaster, which might dispute with him his site of 
Cambodunum, than to trace, in its obvious direction, this 
military way of Antonine. Hence he would not allow his 
* Watson, p. 39, 40. 
