[Footnote 189:  See p. 117.]

[Footnote 190:  All highways were made Royal Roads before the end of the 12th century, so that the course of the original four became matter of purely antiquarian interest.]

[Footnote 191:  Where it struck that sea is disputed, but Henry of Huntingdon’s assertion that it ran straight from London to Chester seems the most probable.]

[Footnote 192:  The lines of these roads, if produced, strike the Thames not at London Bridge, but at the old “Horse Ferry” to Lambeth.  This may point to an alternative (perhaps the very earliest) route.]

[Footnote 193:  Guest (’Origines Celticae’) derives “Ermine” from A.S. eorm=fen, and “Watling” from the Welsh Gwyddel=Goidhel=Irish.  The Ermine Street, however, nowhere touches the fenland; nor did any Gaelic population, so far as is known, abut upon the Watling Street, at any rate after the English Conquest.  Verulam was sometimes called Watling-chester, probably as the first town on the road.]

[Footnote 194:  The distinction between “Street” and “Way” must not, however, be pressed, as is done by some writers.  The Fosse Way is never called a Street, though its name [fossa] shows it to have been constructed as such; and the Icknield Way is frequently so called, though it was certainly a mere track—­often a series of parallel tracks (e.g. at Kemble-in-the-Street in Oxfordshire)—­as it mostly remains to this day.]

[Footnote 195:  This may still be seen in places; e.g. on the “Hardway” in Somerset and the “Maiden Way” in Cumberland.  See Codrington, ‘Roman Roads in Britain.’]

[Footnote 196:  Camden, however, speaks of a Saxon charter so designating it near Stilton (’Britannia,’ II. 249).]

[Footnote 197:  The whole evidence on this confused subject is well set out by Mr. Codrington (’Roman Roads in Britain’).]

[Footnote 198:  It is, however, possible that the latter is named from Ake-manchester, which is found as A.S. for Bath, to which it must have formed the chief route from the N. East.]

[Footnote 199:  See p. 144.  Bradley, however, controverts this, pointing out that the pre-Norman authorities for the name only refer to Berkshire.]

[Footnote 200:  Thus Iter V. takes the traveller from London to Lincoln via Colchester, Cambridge, and Huntingdon, though the Ermine Street runs direct between the two.  The ‘Itinerary’ is a Roadbook of the Empire, giving the stages on each route set forth, assigned by commentators to widely differing dates, from the 2nd century to the 5th.  In my own view Caracalla is probably the Antoninus from whom it is called.  But after Antoninus Pius (138 A.D.) the name was borne (or assumed) by almost every Emperor for a century and more.]

[Footnote 201:  See p. 237.]

[Footnote 202:  Ptolemy also marks, in his map of Britain, some fifty capes, rivers, etc., and the Ravenna list names over forty.]