EARLY BRITISH TRACKWAYS. By Alfred Watkins. London: Simpkin, Marshall. 4s 6d.
This little book records an original discovery regarding ancient pathways, which throws light on many obscure points in the meaning of placenames, and the original purpose of many mounds, stones, etc., and the author has worked it out carefully and convincingly. He finds that in Neolithic times, before Britain was planted with trees and filled with cities, our forefathers found the shortest way to anywhere is the straightest. In making a path, therefore, they laid down a straight sighting line, or “ley,” using hills or isolated trees on high ground as sighting points, and making others in between where necessary. Thus, mounds, with or without moats, pools (valuable for reflected light), mark-stones, sighting-stones were placed defining the “ley” which was to become a road. The old road, therefore, was really a “lane without a turning,” and the advice “Keep straight on” was a natural one.
In many cases the Romans have followed these old leys, but worked on shorter sighting distances, thus losing straightness. The crossing of leys became later a favourable site for churches, camps, and castles. Churchyard crosses were later used as sighting-points, frequently having a hole through them for the purpose. Incidentally this may explain the cup-hollow in our ancient “Culdee” crosses. Skeat says “ley” means a “meadow.’ The author says it means a road. The many “Ley Hills” cannot mean Meadow Hills.
The suffixes ley, ton, bury, barrow, low (a mound), castle, tree (stack, pole), gate, well, and the prefixes bol (a mound), broom (bram, brom) seen in Bosley (cattle-ley), Bosbury, Boswell, Bostock, Boscasle, Barlow, Bolitree (mound with tree), Bellgate, Brem-ley, Brompton, etc., are all reminiscences of sighting-points used in making “leys”. Gate (e.g., in Bellgate) does not mean a wicket, but a road, for which we may compare the Scottish “Gyang on yer gate” (song—Maggie Lauder).
The author discusses the ley-men. “Were they specially trained? the prototypes of the Druids? or the background of witches who rode on broomsticks through the air?—the Lay-men of Beowulf?—and points out that our first English poet was one Lay-amon. In the Oxford Dict., “cole” (cole-staff) is given as meaning a juggler. The author thinks the cole-staff was originally the sighting-stack of the cole-man or magician of the Ley (of Coldman’s Hill, Coles Tump, Col-bury, Coles-hill, Col-chester), and he sees it in col-porteur, who carries his wares on a stick over his shoulder. Thus, the familiar farm name Cold-home (vernacular Caul hame) means the home of the ley-man or roadmaker. Similarly Stonyley, often spelt Stonylea, means the stony road. It is noticeable that the farm-name Mais-ley is never spelt Mais-lea.
The book is a valuable original contribution to the subject of pre-historic pathways in Britain. The photographs are excellent and beautifully reproduced.
Source info: MS note by AW “Aberdeen Journal April 6th”.