ridge of the country, and probably serving in early times as local
boundaries. On Dartmoor they are constructed of stone blocks,
irregularly laid down on the surface of the ground, forming a rude
causeway of about five or six feet wide.

The Romans, with many other arts, first brought into England the
art of road-making. They thoroughly understood the value of good
roads, regarding them as the essential means for the maintenance
of their empire in the first instance, and of social prosperity in
the next. It was their roads, as well as their legions, that made
them masters of the world; and the pickaxe, not less than the sword,
was the ensign of their dominion. Wherever they went, they opened
up the communications of the countries they subdued, and the roads
which they made were among the best of their kind. They were
skilfully laid out and solidly constructed. For centuries after
the Romans left England, their roads continued to be the main
highways of internal communication, and their remains are to this
day to be traced in many parts of the country. Settlements were
made and towns sprang up along the old "streets;" and the numerous
Stretfords, Stratfords, and towns ending' in "le-street"
--as Ardwick-le-street, in Yorkshire, and Chester-le-street,
in Durham--mostly mark the direction of these ancient lines of road.
There are also numerous Stanfords, which were so called because they
bordered the raised military roadways of the Romans, which ran
direct between their stations.

The last-mentioned peculiarity of the roads constructed by the
Romans, must have struck many observers. Level does not seem to
have been of consequence, compared with directness. This
peculiarity is supposed to have originated in an imperfect