Page:Cornwall (Salmon).djvu/32

 CORNWALL Roads. — With regard to modes of communi- cation and travel, this sparse population is tolerably well favoured. In the West of Eng- land those roads generally known as Roman must be understood to be ancient British trackways, utilised, repaired, and probably improved by Romans or Romanised Britons. It is believed that much of the tin raised in the duchy in Celtic times was transported at least as far east as the Isle of Wight, and some think as far east as Thanet. In this case there was a necessity for good roads. Even if the metal was transported on pack-horses, roads were needed. Setting aside the numberless tracks from villages, whose an- tiquity is proved by their depth — for " Devon " lanes are not unknown in Cornv/all — the county was connected with the main road sys- tems of Central Britain by the Fosseway, which crossed the Tamar from Dartmoor, and ran through the Bodmin Moors to Marazion. Another important road, crossing the Tamar at Saltash, ran to Liskeard, where it joined a track from Callington, and so passed westward to Truro and West Cornwall. North Cornwall was entered b}' the Roman street whose name we find in Stratton ; it ran S. to Camelford and Padstow, with branches farther W. and S. These roads were the foundations of Cornwall's present excellent highways, which are connected by innumerable byways and cross-tracks. It is to these byways, field-paths, moor-tracks, hidden and tortuous lanes, that 14