A ROMANCE OF A BYWAY. [To THE EDITOR OF THE
sescrssoasi SIR,—The name of a byway in this neighbourhood carries its back so far and forms so strong a link with a period tux- mentioned in your fascinating article in the Spectator of June 21st that I venture to add it to your writer's suggestive list. Leading south from the "Via Devana " between Cam- bridge and Godmanchester, in the parish of Hemingford Abbotts, is a lane known to every soul in the village as Moat's Way. It is so spelt in the older Ordnance maps, where also is marked its continuation as a path to Ermine Street (the Old North Road). In the latest edition, alas ! the name and the evidence of a right of way have disappeared. From the gravel of the Ouse Valley the way leads over a clay bill, with no sign of water or trace of a moat ; but its direc- tion is almost a bee-line for the village of Toseland, about five miles away. Hemingford is in the Hundred of Toseland, and in the churchyard there may still be seen the stone which marked the Hundred Mot or Moot. If my conten- tion is correct, the name of this obscure lane has remained unchanged for well-nigh a thousand years. Are there other instances remaining of so early a love of local government in a village P-1 am, Sir, Stc., W. REGINALD GROVE, M.B. Saint Ives, Huntingdonshire.
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