“Yes; there is a place, half a mile distant, where, when a child, I drove the plough; we penetrated a land of gravel, and my companion’s grandfather told us, it had been an old road.”—­That is the place I want, lead me to it.  Being already master of both ends of the road, like a broken line, with the center worn out, the gravel bed enabled me to recover it.

The next station upon the Ikenield-street is Birmingham (Bremenium) I have examined this country with care; but find no vestiges of a station:  nor shall we wonder; dissolation is the preserver of antiquity, nothing of which reigns here; the most likely place is Wor-ston (Wall-stone) which a younger brother of Birmingham might afterwards convert into the fashionable moat of the times, and erect a castle.  The next station is Alcester (Alauna) all which are nearly at equal distances.

In forming these grand roads, a strait direction seems to have been their leading maxim.  Though curiosity has lead me to travel many hundred miles upon their roads, with the eye of an enquirer, I cannot recollect one instance, where they ever broke the line to avoid a hill, a swamp, a rock, or a river.

They were well acquainted with the propriety of an old English adage, Once well done is twice done; an idea new cloathed by Lord Chesterfield, If a a thing be worth doing at all, it is worth doing well.

For their roads were so durably constructed, that, had they been appropriated only to the use intended, they might have withstood the efforts of time, and bid fair for eternity.—­Why is this useful art so lost among the moderns?

When time and intercourse had so far united the Romans and the Britons, that they approached nearly to one people, the Romans formed, or rather improved, many of the smaller roads; placed stones of intelligence upon them; hence, London Stone, Stony Stratford (the stone at the Street-ford) Atherstone, stone (hither, near, or first stone from Witherly-bridge, a Roman camp) and fixed their stations in the places to which these roads tended.

The great roads, as observed before, were chiefly appropriated for military purposes, and instituted in the beginning of their government; but the smaller were of later date, and designed for common use.  As these came more in practice, there was less occasion for the military; which, not leading to their towns, were, in process of time, nearly laid aside.

Antonine, and his numerous train of commentators, have not bestowed that attention on the roads they deserve:  a curious acquaintance with the roads of a country, brings us acquainted with the manners of the people:  in one, like a mirror, is exactly represented the other.  Their state, like a master key, unlocks many apartments.