did they cease their
labours till in the time of Antoninus, they had opened passages thro' the
island in all directions. In the reign of that emperor, these works,
connected with others which they had already constructed on the
continent, formed a great chain of communication, which, passing thro'
Rome, from the Pict's wall, or north west, to Jerusalem, nearly the
southeast point of the empire, was drawn out to the length of 4080 Roman,
or as Mr. Reynolds has shewn, of so many British statute miles. Along
these roads proper relays of horses were stationed at short distances,
and it seems that couriers could travel with ease above an hundred miles
a day. Two of these roads, as already observed, passed thro' Leicester.
One, the _Via Devana_, leading from Camalodunum, or Colchester, in Essex,
to _Deva_, of west Chester, a distance of about two hundred miles, has
been lately discovered by some ingenious and able Antiquaries of the
University of Cambridge.

It enters Leicestershire in the neighbourhood of Rockingham; continues a
strait road for many miles till it nearly reaches Leicester, and passing
thro' the town it is found to leave the county near Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
The other road, called the _Via_ _Fossata_ or Fosse, always known, and
every where remarkable, traverses the island in a north-east direction,
from near Grimsby on the coast of Lincolnshire, passes thro' Bath, and
terminates at Seaton, a village situated on the coast of Devonshire, a
distance of more than two hundred and fifty miles. This road enters
Leicesteshire at a place called Seg's Hill, on the wolds, or antiently
wild and uncultivated parts of the county; from thence it passes the
village of Thurmaston and approaches the East gates of Leicester, by the
street called the Belgrave Gate. On the south-west of the town it is
again recognized in the Narborough road, and from that village it
proceeds again a solitary lane till it enters Warwickshire at High Cross,
where it crosses the no less celebrated Roman road, the Watling-Street.
It is well known that in the formation of these roads, the Romans spared
no cost and labour. From the remains of some of them it appears that
upon a bed of sand they spread a coating of gravel, upon which the
pebbles, and sometimes hewn or squared stones were laid, firmly compacted
together in a bed of cement. This, we have reason to believe, was the
structure of such of the roads in this island as are distinguished by th