Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/295

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>pear, and a small sword lying on the right side. For some distance from the inn the Roman wa\ ran parallel to the road, and occasionally rising gently above the level of the surrounding fields, might plainly be perceived and easily traced as far as Moreton, could we have commanded leisure to detect its progress. Most of the houses in this town are, indeed, built upon the side of the Fosse Road, and of course point out its direction.

The application of names indicative of the cir- cumstances of the situation of places, by our Saxon ancestors, was extremely judicious, and is well exemplified in the town before us, which is literally the town situated in the moor; for lying in the bot- tom of a vale that affords no ready drain for the waters flowing into it, the town in moist seasons hi surrounded by a marsh as unwholsome as it is un- pleasant. As we now ascended into the high parts of Glocestershire called the Cotswold, we lost every thing that constituted the picturesque, and in feu of the beauty of Warwickshire, had only wide views of naked country; interesting, how- ever, to the farmer, as they produce that breed oi sheep so highly esteemed over the kingdom, and which were celebrated even in the time of the to- pographical poet Drayton:

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