al
maps show additional Watling Streets and Ermine Streets branching
in all directions over the land,[197] presumably on the authority of
local tradition. And these traditions may be not wholly unfounded;
for the same motives which made the English immigrants of one district
ascribe the handiwork of by-gone days to mythological powers might
operate to the like end in another.

A. 6.--The origin of the names Ryknield Street and Akeman Street
is beyond discovery;[198] but that of the Icknield Street is almost
undoubtedly due to its connection with the great Icenian tribe, to
whose territory it formed the only outlet.[199] By them, in the days
of their greatness, it was probably driven to the Thames, the more
southerly extension being perhaps later. It was never, as its present
condition abundantly testifies, made into a regular Roman "Street."
The final syllable may possibly, as Guest suggests, be the A.S. _hild_
= war.

A. 7.--Besides these main routes, a whole network of minor roads must
have connected the multitudinous villages and towns of Roman Britain,
a fact which is borne witness to by the very roundabout route often
given in the 'Itinerary' of Antoninus between places which we know
were directly connected.[200] Moreover this network must have been
at least as close as that of our present railways, and probably
approximated to that of our present roads.

SECTION B.

Romano-British towns--Ancient lists--Methods of identification--Dense
rural population--Remains in Cam valley--Coins--Thimbles--Horseshoes.

B. 1.--Of these many Romano-British towns we have five contemporary
lists; those of Ptolemy in the 2nd century, of the Antonine
'Itinerary' in the 3rd, of the 'Notitia'[201] in the 5th, and those
of Nennius and of the Ravenna Geographer, composed while the memory of
the Roman occupation was still fresh. Ptolemy and Nennius profess to
give complete catalogues; the 'Itinerary' and 'Notitia' contain only
incidental references; while the Ravenna list, though far the most
copious, is expressly stated to be composed only of selected names. Of
these it has no fewer than 236, while the 'Notitia' gives 118, Ptolemy
60, and Nennius 28 (to which Marcus Anchoreta adds 5 more).

B. 2.--With this mass of material[202] it might seem to be an easy
task to locate every Roman site in Britain; especially as Ptolemy
gives the latitude (and sometimes the longitude[203] also) of every
place he mentions, and the 'Itinerary'