A popular legend that has been around since at least 1937 traces the origin of the gauge even further back than the coalfields of northern England, pointing to the evidence of rutted roads marked by chariot wheels dating from the Roman Empire. Snopes categorised this legend as "false", but commented that "it is perhaps more fairly labelled as 'True, but for trivial and unremarkable reasons. The historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles approximately apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Research however has been undertaken which supports the hypothesis that "the origin of the standard gauge of the railway might result from an interval of wheel ruts of prehistoric ancient carriages".