271 
ship of Ovenden, was a vicinal way from Ilkley to Slack, 
which left the Iter last described at Foreside, near Denholme, 
and was continued by the Long Causeway — through Ovenden, 
as mentioned by Warburton — and thence to Slack. A por- 
tion of this Iter was, a few years since, still remaining, and 
is shown on the Six-inch Ordnance Map, No. 215, as the 
" Old Packhorse Road.'' 
Such, then, is a hastji and incomplete outline of a subject 
on which so much has been written, and of which so much 
remains to be told. It is a question not so obscure as has 
generally been supposed. Most of the itinera improved or 
constructed by Ostorius or Agricola have been in use ever 
since, and constitute the turnpike and packhorse roads of the 
present day : such, for the most part, as those I have abeady 
mentioned. The time at our disposal will not allow me to 
trespass further on your attention, yet I may be permitted to 
observe that, although history is sadly silent on the impor- 
tant and stirring events which] necessarily accompanied, at 
frequent and sudden intervals, the subjugation of this pro- 
vince — we may see, in the vast military operations taken on 
the roads to which I have alluded, that a continually im- 
pending resistance existed somewhere within or about their 
confines, that rendered these costJ^ and formidable defences 
necessary. It is not improbable that, by judicious explora- 
tions along the ancient thoroughfares, at those intervals 
where human nature rested, after long travel, in days remote, 
as it does in these, inscribed stones and other relics may yet 
be found to throw still more light on the history of the 
Roman transactions in this province of the old Brigantia. 
