our ancient customs, was a ditch full of water, where women committing felony were drowned; as men were hanged: Nam et ipsi in omnibus tenementis suis omnem ab antiquo legalem habuerent justitiam, videlicet ferrum, fossam, furcas, et similia. In another sense it is taken for a grave, as appears by these old verses:

Hic jacent in fossa Bedae venerabilis ossa: Hic est fossatus, qui bis erat hic cothdratus.

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