THE STANE STREET.
The Stane Street : a Monograph. By Hilaire Belloc. Illustrated by William Hyde. (Constable and Co. 7s. 6d. net.)—The Stane Street is the Roman road running from London by way of Epsom, Dorking, and Pulborough to Chichester ; and Mr. Belloc has given us a very fascinating study upon it. He first deals generally with Roman roads in Britain, and then passes to the special considera- tion of the Steno Street, which he believes differs in one important respect from the others. " The Stane Street," he says, "bears throughout its whole course the mark of being specially designed to unite London for military purposes alone, and by the shortest route, with the south-west and the Great Haven, the second entry into Britain from oversee, the alternative route to the Kentish one in the military connexion from Rome through London to the frontier." After dealing at some length with the road as a whole, and considering such questions as the causes of the divergence of its alignment from the straight line between London and Chichester, Mr. Belloc comes to a detailed discussion of the road's course. This portion of his study has some of the charm of a detective story of the intellectual sort, for Mr. Belloc always has some ingenious hypothesis to put forward or some unexpected inference to draw which will solve his topographical difficulties. The book would offer a basis and unity of idea for a most delight- ful walking tour through Surrey and Sussex.
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