Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/364

 223 EOMAN EOADS, CAMPS, AND EAETH WORKS, Oliver Ducket, and seems so placed as to command tlie ground to the eastward. At this point of its course it is about 600 feet above the sea, and an extensive and beautiful prospect may be seen from it ; descending thence, it becomes obscure and obliterated by the plough for two fields, when it enters the grounds of Oliver Farm, and is known to the old people by the name of Ohver Gill. Through these grounds the whole work may be easily traced, till it descends to the small brook which flows from the plantations at Aske Hall, where it is obliterated for a short distance, and again appears tolerably perfect in a field called the Cow Pasture, or Gore Field, so called perhaps from the ditch. It is then lost in the low grounds as we approach Gilling. Had it proceeded straight from thence it would have passed the east end of the lane in Gilling, called ]Iill Gate ; but in that case it would have had to traverse ground which, before the modern drainage, must have been frequently sub- merged ; and, as there are traces of a dike similar to it on the side of the road entering Gilling, on the borders of some fields, called collectively Antefortli, it is presumed that the dike took the line of the present road through Gilling, and maintaining its curve, was continued to the spot a little on the south of the farm called Kirklands, where remains of it are still visible. On crossing the Gilling Beck it would be 315 feet above the sea. Here the dike exists well preserved, having been planted with trees by the Vicar of Gilling, to whom, on the enclosure of Gaterley Moor, this portion was allotted. Fol- lowing the line beyond his house for about 400 yards, we cross the Roman Way from Greta Bridge towards Catterick. Here the dike is about 600 feet above the sea. At this place we might expect to find some evidence to show whether the formation of the dike was prior to that of the road, but the entrenchment is so much obliterated on each side the road that this cannot be positively decided. The ground seems to show that the dike has been destroyed on each side to form the road ; at the same time it must be remembered that the road has been in use for centuries as a hiiih road to Carlisle and the north-west of Enoland. Proceeding northwards, the traces of the ditch are very visible, and vestiges of the two dikes occasionally, where the fences cross it, by which they have been preserved.