SOME EXPERIMENTS ON PATINATION. 51 agents of patination are, in nature, alkaline carbonates, viz., potash, soda, ammonia, free ammonia ; and perhaps chlorides of the alkalis, as common salt. That molecular strain or surface abrasion promotes or accelerates patination, appears quite obvious. And that the variety or original condition of the flint largely determines the quality and quantity of the patination. The staining problem I leave at present unsolved ; but it seems probable that it is necessary for the surface of the flint to be rendered porous by patination before the staining agent (which is probably hydrates of iron and manganese in a suspended colloidal state) can do its work. Judging from the analogy of glass, I should expect some inter- esting results from any experiments future investigators may make on the influence of radio-emanations on the colour of flint. (This paper was illustrated by specimens representing about thirty of the experiments described.) PEDDAR'S WAY. BY W. G. CLARKE. Read at Norwich, January 25th, 1915. The longest, best preserved, and best known of the early trackways of Norfolk, Peddar's Way can still be traced, with one or two doubtful sections, from Holme-next-the-Sea, near Hunstan- ton, in a south-easterly direction to Blackwater, the ford of the Little Ouse between Rushford and Riddlesworth, and thence for a few miles into Suffolk. Notwithstanding that most of this course is marked on the Ordnance Survey maps, that it was correctly given* by Samuel Woodward in 1830, and that a pedestrian who essays (as I have done) to walk the fifty miles of this most interest- ing primitive route can have little doubt that it is correctly indicated, yet in 1872 it was referred tot as the ' Roman road which leads from Brancaster to Swaffham," in 1904+ as going from Brancaster to Castleacre, Swaffham, Ickburgh and Brandon, and thence to Exning, Bishop's Stortford and Stratford-le-Bow, while in 1908 § it was stated that it connected the two Branodunums, that to the south, now Brandon, with that to the north, now Brancaster." Of the various places mentioned Castleacre is the only one on its course. In Milne's map of Norfolk (1797) it was described as a Roman road named " Peddar's Way," and that is its most general designa- tion. " Peddar's Road " appears in a map of 1824, the middle section is often called " Pedlar's Way," and the late Mr. E. M. Beloe favoured " Padder's Way," though I have never heard this * " Archaeologia," vol. XXIII., p. 361. t " Norfolk Archaeology," vol. VIII., p. 17, X Marr & Shipley's " Natural History of Cambridgeshire," p. 234. § " Memorials of Old Norfolk," p. 85, 52 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. used save in so far as the Norfolk labourer's pronunciation of Peddar approximates to it. Whatever the form, it would seem to imply a road used by those who travel on foot {pied). On the southern part of its Norfolk course, in the parishes of Hockham, Roudham, Brettenham and Bridgham, it is often known as the " Ridgerow Road," " Ridge Road," or " Ridgeway Road," a term which also appears in the Enclosure Act of the first-named parish. It is a parochial boundary for a considerable portion of its course, but a Hundred boundary only for short distances at Anmer and near Westacre. Geologically the Way passes along the edge of the chalk ridges of West Norfolk, those to the eastward being topped by boulder clay, though between Castleacre and Brettenham there is usually a thin coating of this deposit over the chalk. In the forty-one miles of its Norfolk course the only water it crosses is the rivulet known as the " Heacham river " at Fring, the river Nar at Castleacre, tributaries of the river Wissey at North Pickenham and Threxton, of the Thet at East Wretham, and the Thet itself near Brettenham. Two miles from the coast the Way attains a height of 131 ft. above O.D., increasing in successive stages until the highest point on its course, 302 ft., is reached at Shepherd's Bush, Great Massingham. Then comes the somewhat deep depression formed by the valley of the Nar, and again the Way rises to 249 feet, the height gradually decreasing as it goes southwards. A few sections of the Way have been adopted as modern roads and metalled, but for the greater part of its course it is unmade, grass-grown, and bounded by one or two earthen banks. No part seems absolutely straight; it winds more or less according to the nature of the country. In places it is even now impassable for vehicular traffic owing to the overhanging brambles, thickly-growing bracken, and treacherous rabbit-burrows. At Fring it has a width of 20 ft. from bank to bank, the centre of the road being 2 ft. above the level of each side. On the northern part of Roudham Heath it has a dry ditch on the west and a bank on the east, with a width of 17 paces, though in various portions of its course its width varies from 20 to nearly 40 ft. FROM END TO END. Mr. Beloe says * that the northern termination of Peddar's Way is in two guarded enclosures in the marsh at Holme-next-the- Sea, but I believe this alluvium to be comparatively recent, as there is geological evidence of a Neolithic land-surface and a submerged forest to the northward, of a depression which submerged it, an up- lift to the present level of the coast, and the formation of a bank of sand and shingle which gradually cut off the sea from the marsh behind. In times much more recent than the Roman occupation the marsh at Holme was undoubtedly subject to tidal influences, and the "guarded enclosures" seem to me reclaimed marshes surrounded by drainage dykes, the earth from which forms' the banks. From the main road connecting Hunstanton with Brancaster *" Peddar's Way and its attendant Roads," p. 7. PEDDAR'S WAY. 53 there are three roads to the village street of Holme, and the middle one is the modern representative of Peddar's Way, though local tradition avers that its original course was slightly to the eastward. Inland it rises to the top of the range of low chalk hills forming part of the highway to Ringstead, but before reaching that village the present road turns westward, and for a short distance the course of the Way is only indicated by field boundaries as it was in 1797, though otherwise the route from Holme to Castleacre was then complete. It reappears as a driftway passing Neat's Ling, east of the road from Ringstead to Sedgeford, and for one-sixth of a mile is the boundary between the two parishes, is lost for two or three fields, and continued a short distance north of the Wells-Heacham railway. In a complete stretch of about a mile it passes Magazine Cottage, Sedgeford, built at the time of the Civil War by the Royalist Hamon le Strange of Hunstanton. Although its course is indicated by field boundaries and a footpath, Peddar's Way is lost as a road- way from the hamlet of Littleport in Sedgeford until the road from Sedgeford to Fring is reached. From Fring Cross, so called from the ancient cross-roads, the Way is for half-a-mile the boundary between Fring and Sedgeford, and as the boundary between Fring and Snettisham, Great Bircham and Snettisham, Dersingham and Anmer, keeps south-eastward over the chalk downs, passing over the wind-swept expanses of Anmer Minque and Harpley Common, whence it is the boundary between Harpley and Flitcham to a short distance north of Harpley Dams and the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway. Thence it goes to Little and Great Massingham. From Shepherd's Bush, east of Massingham Heath, it is a metalled road to Castleacre, the parish of Westacre approaching within a short distance of the Way on the west. Castleacre is the only village of any importance on the Way, for there are remains of extensive earthworks, a castle and a priory. Peddar's Way approaches the village in a direct line with the eastern vallum of the earthworks, the construction of which probably caused a diversion of the original track which is now represented by Bailey Street. This descends the hill to the ancient ford of the Nar. Dr. A. Jessopp says * that south of this point the Way " travels into regions of desolation and dulness," but the southern part of the Way is certainly the prettier. From the ford of the Nar the Way continues into Southacre and Sporle-with-Palgrave, diverging from the present highway to Little Palgrave Hall, whence for a short distance it has been lost by cultivation, but is marked by field boundaries, and passes one-sixth of a mile east of Great Palgrave and by Palgrave Hall almost to the railway from Swaff- ham to Dereham, where there is a slight diversion. Tne Way is resumed south of the railway as Procession Lane, the boundary between SwafFham and Sporle, to the railway from Swaffham to Thetford, and thence into North Pickenham. *" Random Roamings," p. 50. 54 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. The Ordnance Survey maps then leave a gap to Houghton-on- the-Hill east of and parallel with the Wissey, and make the Way for a time the boundary between South Pickenham and Ashill, Great Cressingham and Ashill, and Great Cressingham and Saham Toney, into Little Cressingham (passing the Rectory) and Saham Toney, but the end of the known northern portion and that of the known southern portion would not be joined by any route like this, and it would be a change of direction from south-east to south.