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See also:ERMINE See also:STREET . Documents and writers of the 1th and succeeding centuries occasionally mention four " royal roads" in Britain—Icknield Street, Erning or Ermine Street, Watling Street and See also:Foss Way—as See also:standing apart from all other existing roads and enjoying the See also:special See also:protection of the See also:- KING
- KING (O. Eng. cyning, abbreviated into cyng, cing; cf. O. H. G. chun- kuning, chun- kunig, M.H.G. kiinic, kiinec, kiinc, Mod. Ger. Konig, O. Norse konungr, kongr, Swed. konung, kung)
- KING [OF OCKHAM], PETER KING, 1ST BARON (1669-1734)
- KING, CHARLES WILLIAM (1818-1888)
- KING, CLARENCE (1842–1901)
- KING, EDWARD (1612–1637)
- KING, EDWARD (1829–1910)
- KING, HENRY (1591-1669)
- KING, RUFUS (1755–1827)
- KING, THOMAS (1730–1805)
- KING, WILLIAM (1650-1729)
- KING, WILLIAM (1663–1712)
king. Unfortunately these authorities are not at all agreed as to their precise course; the roads themselves do not occur as specially privileged in actual legal or other practice, and it is likely that the See also:category of Four Roads is the invention of a lawyer or an See also:antiquary. The names are, however, attested to some extentby See also:early charters which name them among other roads, as boundaries. From these charters we know that Icknield Street ran along the See also:Berkshire See also:downs and the Chilterns, that Ermine Street ran more or, less due See also:north through See also:Huntingdonshire, that Watling Street ran north-See also:west across the midlands from See also:London to See also:Shrewsbury, and Foss diagonally to it from See also:Lincoln or See also:Leicester to See also:Bath and See also:mid-See also:Somerset. This See also:evidence only proves the existence of these roads in Saxon and See also:Norman days, But they all seem to be much older. Icknield Street is probably a prehistoric ridgeway along the downs, utilized perhaps by the See also:Romans near its eastern end, but in See also:general not See also:Roman. Ermine Street coincides with See also:part of a See also:line of Roman roads leading north from London through See also:Huntingdon to Lincoln. This line is followed by the Old North Road through See also:Cheshunt, See also:Bunting-See also:ford, See also:Royston, and Huntingdon to See also:Castor near See also:Peterborough; and thence it can be traced through lanes and byways past Ancaster to Lincoln. Watling Street is the Roman See also:highway from London by St See also:Alban's (See also:Verulamium) to Wroxeter near Shrewsbury (Viroconium). Foss is the Roman highway from Lincoln to Bath and See also:Exeter. Hence it has been supposed, and is still frequently alleged, that the Four Roads were the See also:principal highways of Roman See also:Britain. This, however, is not the See also:case. Icknield Street is not Roman and the three roads which follow Roman lines, Ermine Street, Watling Street, and Foss, held no See also:peculiar position in the Romano-See also:British road See also:system (see BRITAIN: Roman). In later times, the names Ermine Street, Icknield Street and Watling Street have been applied to other roads of Roman or" supposed Roman origin. This, however, is wholly the See also:work of Elizabethan or subsequent antiquaries and deserves no See also:credence.
The derivations of the four names are unknown. Icknield, Ermine and Watling may be from See also:English See also:personal names; Foss, originally Fos, seems to be the See also:Lat. fossa in its occasional See also:medieval sense of a See also:bank of upcast See also:earth or stones, such as the agger of a road. (F. J.
End of Article: ERMINE STREET
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