AN OLD ROAD.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 40, 2 October 1911, Page 8

AN OLD ROAD.

Every hoy who is taught Roman history knows that tho Romans wore great, road-builders, and hoys who li\e in countries where the Romans left their mark may be fortunate enough to see tangible proof of the faithfulness with which these ancient makers of roads did their work. Such proof has just boon brought to light by the National Road Board, which was created in England last year to make use of some of the money raised by the petrol tax, for improving the roads for motor traffic. In casting about for a new cross-country road, the Board decided to make use of an almost forgotten strip of a highway made by the Romans, the Fcsso Way. Some of tho main roads made by the Romans in Britain are used to this day, but this one, from Leicester to Lincoln, lias in parts been deserted for ages. It wanders over the country, .writes the correspondent of an Australian paper, in parts so matted with undergrowth of briars, that tho men who made tho preliminary survey for tho Board spend a fortnight in getting through six miles of coun- ■ try. On either side of tho road, running parallel thirty yards apart, they found tho old Roman ditches, filled with water and overgrown. Tho old road had long been given up to gipsy camps, but in Ilia early times when tho parishes and counties of England were taking shape, it was sufficiently in evidence to bo made the boundary of thoi parishes and oven of the coiin- * Lies. The workmen found when they uncpyOrcd tho old road, that a good deal of’life paving put down by the Romans had been taken away. “Probably gny enterprising early homesteader ■ wanting a cowshed simply, went down with a cart and pick and took out a suitable selection of paving-stones. Ik in other parts there were the old stones still—an-

;ioni, dark sandstone blocks, deeply water-worn, and a small, smooth gravel besides.” The Board’s wrkers have dug the old pavmont out for a width of fifteen feet and a depth of a foot, and have filled in with furnace “clinker,” mixed with bits of the old paving. Before long motor cars will >e rolling along the old road along which Roman legionaries marched. The correspondent’s comment that “this is really a wonderful island for anyone with a leaning towards old romance,” seems rather painfully ohj • ' ' t 1 \ ' 710118. For that hacking cought at night, take Tonking’s Linseed Emulsion. From all chemists and stores—ls 6d, 2s 6d, 4s 6d.*