straight line through lonely country towards Canterbury, leaving the main road at Harmansole Farm.⁴   Both Leland and Camden speak of a paved road; Leland says: ‘Ther went fro Lymme to Canterbury a streate fayr paved, whereof at this day yt is cawled . Stony Streat. Yt is the straytest that I ever sawe, and toward Canterbury ward the pavement continually appereth a iiii or v myles.’
   A road from Dover to Lympne is indicated in the Peutinger Tables, and though several attempts have been made to trace its course (notably by Mr. S. E. Winbolt), there is very little definite evidence to go upon, and it is still unidentified.
   From Canterbury, the London road. ran towards Harbledown and onwards to the higher ground at Dunkirk. Its course for the next 19 miles is practically a straight line, passing through Boughton, Ospringe (possibly the station of. Durolevum (see p. 96), and where a hollow way, very deep and wide, can be seen on the south side of the present road just beyond the village), Sittingbourne, and Rainham to Chatham Hill, the modern road following much the same course. Many discoveries of Roman remains have been made along and near the road, especially near Ospringe and Sittingbourne (see pp. 93, 96); and according to Hasted, the Kentish historian, the Roman road was in his day visible at several places between Sittingbourne and Chatham.
   There is a good deal of information about the course of the road through Chatham, Rochester, and Strood,⁵  largely as the result of the interest taken by the late Mr. George Payne, at one time curator of Rochester Museum. After leaving Chatham Hill it passed by Hammond Hill and to the rear of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, then along Nag’s Head Lane and the rear of Orange Terrace to Star Hill and so to Eastgate. Through Rochester it probably followed the present High Street, leaving by the unidentified north-west gate near the bridge (see p. 85). On the further bank of the river the engineers found an obstacle in the shape of a belt of marsh land about 355 yds. wide, and this they overcame by building a causeway across the narrowest part to the higher land near the foot of Strood Hill. A complete section through the causeway was seen in 1897 during excavations for a storm-water drain in Strood High Street; a piece of the pavement scored with wheel ruts was then removed, and it may be seen in the garden of Rochester Museum. The causeway was raised on a foundation of 4 ft. oak piles with cills across them. Upon the. foundation was a layer 3 ft. 6 in. thick composed of flints, ragstone, and broken tiles,⁶  followed by a layer of rammed chalk 5 in. thick. Then came 7 in. of finely broken flint and 9 in. of small pebbles mixed with earth and rammed, this in turn being overlaid by a paved surface of ragstone blocks grouted with fine gravel. The way was almost 14 ft. wide, and the layers were exceedingly hard and compact, making a very sound structure.
   Pieces of the Roman road have been seen in excavations at the Angel Corner and under Budden and Biggs Brewery, from which it seems that its course was slightly north of the present Strood I-Jill. Roman pottery has been found along the road just beyond Strood Waterworks.
   ⁴  It is possible that Stone Street and the London road were connected by a road from Harmansole Farm through Street End at Nackington.
   ⁵  See pages 86, 169 f.
   ⁶  In this layer were coins of Nerva, Antoninus Pius, Gordianus, and Maximianus.