upon it, from Mr Thomas Robinson of Pickering--"a gentleman well versed in
this kind of learning." Drake, enthusiastically describing his examination
of the road, says, "I had not gone a hundred paces on it, but I met with a
_mile stone_ of the _grit kind_, a sort not known in this country. It was
placed in the midst of the causeway, but so miserably worn, either by
sheep or cattle rubbing against it, or the weather, that I missed of the
inscription, which, I own, I ran with great eagerness to find. The
causeway is just twelve foot broad, paved with a flint pebble [probably
very hard limestone], some of them very large, and in many places it is as
firm as it was the first day, a thing the more strange in that not only
the distance of time may be considered, but the total neglect of repairs
and the boggy rotten moors it goes over. In some places the _agger_ is
above three foot raised from the surface. The country people curse it
often for being almost wholly hid in the ling, it frequently overturns
their carts laden with turf as they happen to drive across it. It was a
great pleasure to me to trace this wonderful road, especially when I soon
found out that it pointed to the bay aforesaid. I lost it sometimes by the
interposition of valleys, rivulets, or the exceeding great quantity of
ling growing on these moors. I had then nothing to do but observe the
line, and riding crossways, my horse's feet, through the ling, informed me
when I was upon it. In short, I traced it several miles, and could have
been pleased to have gone on with it to the seaside, but my time would not
allow me. However, I prevailed upon Mr Robinson to send his servant, and a
very intelligent person of _Pickering_ along with him, and they not only
made it fairly out to _Dunsley_, but brought me a sketch of the country it
went through with them. From which I have pricked it out in the map, as
the reader will find at the end of this account."

I have examined Drake's map but find that he has simply ruled two
perfectly straight parallel lines between Cawthorne and Dunsley, so that