I. The Road never turns a sharp corner save under such necessity as is
presented by a precipitous rock or a sudden bend in a river.
In this it does precisely what all savage trails do to-day, in the
absence of cultivated land. When you have a vague open space to walk
through at your choice you have no reason for not going straight on.
We found but one apparent exception to this rule in the whole
distance: that at the entry to Puttenham; and this exception is due to
a recent piece of cultivation.[4] This alignment, however, is not
rigid--nothing primitive ever is--the Road was never an absolutely
straight line, as a Roman road will be, but it was always direct.
II. The Road always keeps to the southern slope, where it clings to
the hills, and to the northern bank (_i.e._ the southward slope) of a
stream. The reason of this is obvious; the slope which looks south is
dry.
There are but four exceptions to this rule between Winchester and
Canterbury, and none of the four are so much as a mile in length.[5]