But to return to the behaviour of the Roman Road in the marshy approaches of a river. I say that the embankment having been swallowed up and the bridge broken, the men of the Dark Ages had to find for themselves some new way of crossing, and it is interesting to note that they here fell back upon the primitive methods common before Roman civilization came. They abandoned the straight line and picked their way by the driest bits they could find, so that the new crossing of the marshy district grew up sinuous and haphazard. Later, when the new road system developed with the Middle Ages, this new road was often straightened and a new bridge thrown across the river upon its line; but, save for a very few exceptions, the Roman approach had disappeared. There are scores of examples of this up and down the country. The most prominent usually bear such names as Stamford, Stanford, Stafford, Stratford, Stretford, etc., all of which come either from the word “street” or the word “stone,” coupled with the word “ford.” They thus signify that in the valleys of the river the “going” or passage had been hardened artificially with stone derived from Roman work. A very good example of the way in which the newer track replaced the older one is to be found at Stamford, in Northamptonshire. The accompanying sketch shows the trace of the Roman road from its leaving Burghley Park to the old crossing of the river and beyond. There are still broken traces of the old embankment on the north side of the stream, but it is clear that this straight line across the marsh broke down, that a new way was picked out and slowly hardened, and a new bridge built to suit it. What the men of the Dark Ages did here was to keep to the drier patches to the east where a ford crossed the river, and then curve round again westward, again to join the road on the heights north of the river. This new passage took over the name of the “Stone” ford, where the old road had crossed. A bridge was thrown in due time across the new ford, and the town shifted towards the new bridge and acquired its new name from the crossing. [Illustration: _Part II_, Sketch IX]