FOSSA, in our ancient customs, was a ditch full of
water, where women committing felony were drowned;
as men were hanged: Nam et ipsi in omnibus tenentibus
suis omnem ab antiquo legalem habuere justitiam, videlicet
ferrum, fossam, furcas, et similia. In another sense it is
taken for a grave, as appears by these old verses:
Hic jacet in fossa Bebe venerabilis ossi:
Hic est fossatus, qui hic erat hic cetera tu.
Foss-Way was anciently one of the four great Ro-
man high-ways of England: so called, according to
Cambden, because it was ditched on both sides, which
was the Roman method of making highways.