But it must have taken centuries to do it.
Many of these hollow lanes, especially those on flat ground, must be
as old or older than the Conquest. In Devonshire I am sure that they
are. But there many of them, one suspects, were made not of malice,
but of cowardice prepense. Your indigenous Celt was, one fears, a
sneaking animal, and liked to keep when he could under cover of banks
and hill-sides; while your bold Roman made his raised roads straight
over hill and dale, as 'ridge-ways' from which, as from an eagle's
eyrie, he could survey the conquered lowlands far and wide. It marks
strongly the difference between the two races, that difference
between the Roman paved road with its established common way for all
passengers, its regular stations and milestones, and the Celtic
track-way winding irresolutely along in innumerable ruts, parting to
meet again, as if each savage (for they were little better) had taken
his own fresh path when he found the next line of ruts too heavy for
his cattle. Around the spurs of Dartmoor I have seen many ancient
roads, some of them long disused, which could have been hollowed out
for no other purpose but that of concealment.
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