WAYS, ROMAN. Our old chroniclers and writers give this name to four principal ancient highways which they suppose to have been either originally formed by the Romans in Britain during their occu pation of the country, or at least to have been completed and perfected by that people upon lines of road for the greater part already traced and used by the former inhabitants. The names however by which the four highways are distinguished appear to be Saxon in form, although they may be Roman or British in etymology : Watling-street, Ikenield-strect, Ermine-street, and the Fosse-way. The Saxons no doubt adopted the Roman highways, but probably gave them new, or altered their existing names. Watling-street is held to have extended from Dover to Chester ; or, according to another hypothesis, to Cheater le-street, in Durham, passing through Canterbury, London, and Vern lam, from which last-mentioned town it had also the name of Werlaem. street. Its remains, or supposed remains, are still known in various places by the names of High Dyke, High Ridge, Ridge Way, and Forty-Foot Way. There has indeed been much controversy as to whether Wading-street did actually pass through London ; but the received opinion is, that it passed along the line of what is still called Watling-street in the City, meeting the other three great roads or branches from them at the central milliarium in Cannon-street, pointed out by the eito of London Stone, and crossing the river at Donate to what is still called Stoney-street on the Surrey side. The northward course of Watling-street, after leaving London or its neighbourhood, is supposed to have been over Ilampstead Heath, to Edgeware, and hence, through Verulam (or St. Alban's), and Dunstable in Bedford shire, to Stoney Stratford in Buckinghamshire, whence it skirted Leiceetershire on the west to Bosworth, and thence proceeded in a north-western direction to Chester. Ikenield or Ichenild-street is said to have been so called from its commencing on the eastern side of the island in the country of the Iceni, mentioned by Tacitua, and supposed to be the same with the Simeni of Ptoleimeus, who appear to have occupied Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridge. On the supposition how ever of London Stone having been the central milliarium where all the great roads of the country met, a branch of the Ikenield must have extended to this point; it is supposed to have passed through Aldgate, and to have been otherwise known by the name of the Vicinal Way. The course of the Ikenield to the westward is extremely obscure : it appears to have crossed Watling-street at Dunstable, and thence ex tended first south-by-west to Dorchester, and thence westward through Devonshire and Cornwall. Ermine or Hermin-street, again, is con jectured by some to have extended from St.. David's, at the south
western extremity of Wales, to Southampton ; by others, to have stretched more directly across the country to London, which it may have entered by what is now called Holborn. From London it pro ceeded northward by Godmanchester to Lincoln, and thence to Winter ton on the Humber, where was a ferry : beyond the Humber, roads proceeded northwards to Whitby, and north-by-west to York ; and thence to the border, and later into Scotland. Fivally, the Fosse is supposed to have taken its course from south-west to north-east, begin ning near Totnes in Devonshire, and passing through Bath, Cirencester, Chipping Norton, Coventry, Leicester, and Newark, to Lincoln, where it united with Ermine-street. The courses of these and the other lead ing Roman roads through the several counties will generally be found described more particularly under the several counties in the GEO.:). Dry. The whole subject of these supposed Roman highways is how ever obscure and undetermined. Yet it is certain that the entire face of the country was, during the Roman occupation, covered with a net work of roads, and these four would seem to have been the main lines, while others branched from them at various points, so as to connect every important military station with London and other principal towns, and with each other. Generally the main or military roads were marked by directness of course ; in many cases they are almost coincident with or parallel to the present roads. The branch or cross roads (rice ricinales), the private roads (riis prirata), and the bye-roads (derim), were of course leas elaborate in construction and less direct in course. Itineraries of the chief Roman roads in Britain have come down to ua ; that called of Antoninus is probably of the 4th century, that of Richard of Cirencester of the 14th century (of which however there are doubts as to the genuineness), and a less complete one com piled in Ravenna in the 7th century: each is believed to have been com piled from more ancient materials. The four great roads, with one or two more,auch as Akeman-street, extending westward from London to Bath, may have been, as commonly supposed, the old British highways; but there can be little doubt that they were re-formed and recon structed by the Romans. Vitruvius has left a full account of the Roman system of making paved ways []loans], and these English roads, though less elaborate in contraction than those diverging from Rome itself, seem, from the appearance presented by their founda tions wherever they have been dug up, to have been formed on the same substantial principle. 11'here they remain, they are still ofteu in 'good order, although they were doubtless adopted by the Saxons, and continued to be used for a long period subsequently.