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 fuis ommem ab antiquo legalem habuere iustitiam, videbatur ferrum, fossam, furcas, et similia. In another sense it is taken for a grave, as appears by these old verses:

Hic jacet in fossa Bode venerabilis ossis; Hic est fossas, qui bis erat hic cadaver.

Foss-Way was anciently one of the four great Roman high-ways of England: so called, according to Camden, because it was ditched on both sides, which was the Roman method of making highways.