I have examined Drake's map but find that he has simply ruled two
perfectly straight parallel lines between Cawthorne and Dunsley, so that
except for the fact that Mr Robinson's servant and the intelligent
Pickeronian found that the road did go to Dunsley we have no information
as to its exact position. Young, however, describes its course past Stape
and Mauley Cross over Wheeldale and Grain Becks to July or Julian Park. In
the foundation of a wall round an enclosure at that point he mentions the
discovery of an inscribed Roman stone of which a somewhat crude woodcut is
given in his "History of Whitby." The inscription appears to be ILVIVILVX,
and Young read it as LE. VI. VI. L. VEX, or in full LEGIONIS SEXTAE
VICTRICIS QUINQUAGINTA VEXILLARII, meaning, "Fifty vexillary soldiers of
the sixth legion, the Victorious." This rendering of the abbreviations may
be inaccurate, and some of the letters before and after those visible when
the stone was discovered may have been obliterated, but Dr Young thought
that the inscription was probably complete. On Lease Rigg beyond July Park
the road cuts through another Roman camp of similar dimensions to the
western one at Cawthorne. In the map reproduced here a much clearer idea
of the course of the road can be had than by any description. I have
marked the position of the road to the south of Cawthorne as passing
through Barugh, where Drake discovered it in 1736. "From the camp"
(Cawthorne), he writes, "the road disappears towards York, the _agger_
being either sunk or removed by the country people for their buildings.
But taking the line, as exactly as I could, for the city, I went down the
hill to _Thornton-Risebrow_, and had some information from a clergyman of
a kind of a camp at a village called vulgarly BARF; but corruptly, no
doubt, from BURGH. Going to this place, I was agreeably surprised to fall
upon my long lost road again; and here plainly appeared also a small
intrenchment on it; from whence, as I have elsewhere hinted, the _Saxon_
name _Burgh_ might come. The road is discernible enough, in places, to
_Newsam-Bridge_ over the river _Rye_; not far from which is a _mile-stone_
of _grit_ yet standing. On the other side of the river the _Stratum_, or
part of it, appears very plain, being composed of large blue pebble, some
of a tun weight; and directs us to a village called _Aimanderby_. _Barton
on the Street_, and _Appleton on the Street_, lye a little on the side of
the road." Drake then proceeds to speculate as to the likelihood of the
road still making a bee-line for York, or whether it diverged towards
Malton, then no doubt a Roman station; but as his ideas are unimportant in
comparison with his discoveries, we will leave him to return to the camps
at Cawthorne. The hill they occupy forms part of a bold escarpment running
east and west between Newton upon Rawcliff and Cropton, having somewhat
the appearance of an inland coast-line. On the north side of the camps the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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