FOSSA, in our ancient customs, was a ditch full of water, where women who had committed felony were drowned. Nam et ipsi in omnibus tenementis suis omnem ab antiquo legalem habuere justitiam, videlicet ferrum, fossam, fureas, et similia. In another sense it is used to signify a grave, as appears by these old verses:
Hic jacent in fossa Bedæ Venerabilis ossa:
Hic est fossatus, qui bis erat hic cathedratus.
Foss-Way was anciently one of the four great Roman highways of England, and, according to Camden, was so called because it was ditched on both sides, this having been the Roman method of making highways.