246
NOTES AND QUERIES. ii2s.iv.s E p T .,i9i8.
ANTHONY HEBBORNE of Hardwick, co.
Durham (b. 1542, eldest son of Richard
Hebborne by Anne, sister of Sir Christopher
Metcalfe of Nappe, co. York), married Anne,
daughter of Robert Tempest of Holmside,
and was attainted in 1570 (Surtees's ' Dur-
ham,' iii. 35). Is it known whether he was
executed or pardoned ?
JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.
SAMUEL HATGH. Wanted biographical data in regard to Samuel Haigh, born in London in 1794. He went to Chile in 1817, and fought in Chile's War of Independence, joining the patriot cavalry as volunteer, and taking part in the battle of Maipo (April 5, 1818). He returned to England in 1828, and published in 1829 an account of his travels, ' Sketches of Buenos Aires and Chile.' I should also like to get in touch with his descendants, if any.
E. HAVILAND HILLMAN.
c/o Anglo-South American Bank, Old Broad Street, B.C.
AUTHORS OP QUOTATIONS WANTED.
1. But the waiting time, my brother, Is the hardest time of all.
L/OMBABD.
2. Ormond, who trod the shivering deck Secure amidst a nation's wreck,
Who scorned the boon the traitor gave, And slumbered fearless on the wave.
A. M. PLATT.
ROMAN ROADS IN {BRITAIN:
THEIR ALIGNMENT.
(12 S. iv. 216.)
MB.' C. R. MOORE inquires how the Romans succeeded in securing so correct an align- ment of their straight roadways how, for instance, they were able to lay out the Fosse from near the Dorset coast, through Bath and Cirencester, to Lincoln, with hardly any serious deviation from the straight line for upwards of 200 miles. The problem is really a double one. First, if the Romans wished to lead a road direct from, say, Axminster to Lincoln, how did they know the general direction to be followed ? Secondly, how, after ascertaining the general direction, were they able to keep a straight line on each single section, from Axminster to Bath, from Bath to Cirencester, and thence on to Leicester and to Lincoln ?
(a) The second problem is comparatively
easy. The Romans, as has often been
noticed, seem to have chosen far-seen hill-
tops, and to have laid their lines by these.
For instance, a Roman road ran from
Corbridge on Tyne in South Northumberland
to near Edinburgh, and its line can be traced
to-day fairly closely. The northern part
of this line was directed by the Eildon hills,
which are clearly visible as you come over
the Cheviot watershed near Coquethead ;
and any one who traces the road thence
towards Melrose sees the Eildon summits
on the horizon before him for miles together.
Surveyors, using columns of smoke from
fires lighted on appropriate hills, could
easily have staked out the line, which then
the roadmakers would follow. Perhaps it
was a slow process, but then the main
difference between ancient and modern
civilization is that we can do rapidly what
the Romans did very slowly, but equally
well. It was quite as easy in the days of
the Roman Empire to journey from Rome
to London as it is now (in normal peace-
time), but it was a far more lengthy business.
Similarly, I imagine the Romans shaved
as clean as we do, but presumably they
needed more time than we do with up-to-
date razors. And in Roman days, when
time mattered far less than now, there was
no difficulty in laying out a line from hill-
top to hill-top, even without a compass.
That roads were thus laid out is, I think,
plain from the fact that, .where a road runs
straight through hilly country, its devia-
tions from the true line occur between two
hill-tops. Several examples of this can
be seen on the Fosse Way between Bath
and Cirencester. The surveyors first fixed
the line along the successive summits ; the
roadmakers then worked " from point to
point."
(b) The other problem is less easy to solve the problem, namely, how the Romans knew how to start from Exeter N.E., and not only to reach Bath and Cirencester, but also to get to Lincoln, For it is plain that Lincoln was the obj ective. The road was not merely a way driven at a venture into the N.E., as to which it did not matter whether it reached Lincoln or only got near to it. Sometimes, maybe, the Romans acted like a golf -player, driving towards the green, and then putting by short adjustments into the precise hole. But they also used the stars. On the so- called " Limes," or Roman frontier against Germany, one long section runs nearly due N. and S. almost absolutely true for the
