Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/165

Rh the Welsh midian, an area, an enclosure, considering that ancient ways were trenched or enclosed on the sides, and that the terra "Maiden Way" is expressive of an enclosed road, as some have supposed that the Watling Street was so called from being fenced on the sides with wattles, the Saxon name for long rods or saplings. In my researches, however, I have not found traces of such enclosure. Lysons, in his "History of Cumberland," says, "Among the moors on the east borders of the county a third road is evidently to be traced under the name of the Maiden Way, a term familiar to all persons conversant in these matters of antiquity, and supposed by Warton to be corrupted from the British word Madan, fair." Another suggestion has been made as to the Celtic origin of this term by the Rev. C. H. Hartshorne, who, in his "Salopia Antiqua," adopts the Celtic etymon Mad and Madien, an eminence or elevation. "It derived this appellation (Maiden Way) either because it was a raised road, or else, which seems more likely, from its passing by Maiden Castle in Westmoreland, and by a small fort called Maidenhold, between Crackenthorp and Kirkby There. In either case Maiden Way is synonymous with Highway" A close inspection of the road leads me to conclude that this is the most probable origin of the name. For the most part it traverses moors and mosses, and may have been formed at first by the Celts or British, who possibly, by digging two parallel ditches, and casting the earth between them, raised the way, and called it the Madien road. The Romans, on their arrival, may have found it convenient to complete this line. In the Slack-house ground, on the Waterhead Fell, the Snowden-close Pasture, and the Side Fell, the road retains a considerable elevation. In these places the adjacent ground is of a stiff clayey nature, and has prevented the road from sinking to the level of the surrounding surface, or subsiding under it.