It has been in continuous use for
more than three thousand years, and may therefore be said to be the
oldest road in England. It is older than the greatness of London, for
in its arrow flight across England it ignores the City. After the ford
at Lambeth, to-day represented by Lambeth Bridge, an older crossing of
the Thames than that at London Bridge, it mounted the northern slope,
passing perhaps across the present gardens of Buckingham Palace and
the eastern end of Hyde Park, where to-day it is lost or merely
represented by Grosvenor Place and Park Lane, to cross the great
western road out of London at Tyburn, the original "Cross Roads," the
ancient place of execution close by the present Marble Arch, and to
pursue its way, as we may see it still, directly and in true Roman
fashion down what we know as Edgware Road. That great north-western
highway lies over the very pavement of the Romans, which lies only a
few feet below the surface of the modern road.
It is then upon this most ancient highway that in the footsteps of the
Britons, the Romans their beneficent conquerors, and the English
pilgrims our forefathers, we shall march on to Canterbury.
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