The Ermine Street, the third great Roman road, takes, on the other hand, a northern direction, passing through Cheshunt, Wormley, Broxbourne, and Wadesmill, and so by way of Buntingford to Royston. There is however some difference of opinion about its course. [Illustration: High Street, Stevenage] Of modern roads, the Chester and Holyhead road has been already mentioned as following in the main the line of the Old Watling Street. Of equal importance is the Great North Road to York, passing through Barnet, Hatfield, Welwyn, Codicote, Stevenage, and Hitchin. Of other highways it must suffice to mention that the Bedford road branches off from the Chester and Holyhead at St Albans to run through Harpenden, and so on to Luton, in Bedfordshire; while the main road from London to Cambridge and Norwich takes the line of the Lea valley on the eastern side of the county, which it leaves a short distance to the northward of Bishop’s Stortford. [Illustration: View on the ‘Great North Road,’ Codicote Village] In coaching days St Albans was a far more bustling and busy town than it is at the present day; a very large number of coaches passing daily through the city each way, the majority running on the Holyhead and Chester road, but a certain number taking the Bedford line. The two chief coaching and posting inns were the Peahen and the White Hart, both of which are still in existence. The speed and smartness with which the mail-coaches were run in the days immediately preceding their abolition was little short of marvellous. [Illustration: Watford] The first half of the nineteenth century saw the introduction of railways, which gradually but surely killed the old coaching traffic. One of the first lines to be opened was the London and North-Western--in 1838--which traverses the south-western side of the county, passing through Watford, Boxmoor, Berkhampstead, and the outskirts of Tring. In 1853 a branch line was opened from Watford to St Albans, and another to Rickmansworth in 1862. With a short break between Boxmoor and Hemel Hempstead, the North-Western system is connected with the Midland by means of a branch line from the last-named town to Harpenden. The main line of the Midland, which traverses the western half of the county by way of Elstree, St Albans, and Harpenden, was opened in 1868. Both St Albans and Harpenden have branches of the Great Northern Railway to Hatfield, which is on the main line; the latter continuing through Welwyn, Stevenage, and Hitchin. By means of a branch line of the Great Northern from Hatfield to Hertford, we reach the Great Eastern, the fourth great railway in the county, the main line of which runs through Broxbourne, Sawbridgeworth, and Bishop’s Stortford, but connected also with Ware and Hertford, and having a branch from St Margaret’s to Buntingford.