“Early British Trackways, Moats, Mounds, Camps, and Sites,” by Alfred Watkins, Fellow and Progress Medallist (for 1910) of the Royal Photographic Society, Past President (1919) of the Woolhope Club, and published by the Watkins Meter Co., Hereford, is a book of 40 pages which will appeal with striking force to antiquarians. Mr. Watkins claims to have made a unique discovery, and we have no doubt many people interested in the subject will lose no time in putting his theory to the test. He reveals for the first time a systematic planning of pre-historic trackways, but throws a flood of light on the evolution of defensive camps, of the sites of castles and churches, and on the meaning of place names. The author has arrived at the conclusion that during a long period, the limits of which remain to be discovered, but apparently from the Neolithic (later flint) age, on past the Roman occupation with a period of decay, all trackways were in straight lines marked out by experts on a sighting system. The sighting lines were, in earlier examples, from natural mountain peak to mountain peak, with secondary sighting points easily to be seen by the ordinary users standing at the preceding sighting point, all being planned on one straight line. These secondary points were constructed either of earth, water, or stone, trees being planted on the line. Sacred wells were sometimes terminals in the line and sometimes included as secondary points. Earth sighting points were chiefly on higher ground, and now bear the name of tump, tumulus, mound, castle, bury, knap, etc. Sighting points, says Mr. Watkins, were used for commerce and for assemblies of people. In troublesome times they were turned into defensive earthworks or fortified enclosed camps. Practically all ancient churches are on the site of these sighting points, and there is evidence that in some cases the churchyard cross is on the exact spot of the ancient sighting or marking stone. The author advises the reader of the book to take an inch to the mile ordnance map and a straight edge. Take all the earthworks mentioned, add to them all ancient churches, all moats and ponds, all castles (even castle farms), all wayside crosses, all crossroads or junctions which bear a place name, all ancient stones bearing a name, all traditional trees (such as gospel oaks) marked on maps, and all legendary wells. Make a small ring round each on a map. Stick a steel pin on the site of an undoubted sighting point, place a straight edge against it, and move it round until several (not less than four) of the objects named and marked come exactly in line. You will then find, he says, fragments here and there of ancient roads and footpaths, also small bits of modern roads conforming to it. The sighting line was called the lay or ley, and, as the author suggests, ley hunting would give a new zest to field rambles, and he promises that if careful work is done many interesting antiquarian discoveries will be made. Mr. Watkins truly says the important point in the booklet is the previously undiscovered string of facts which make it necessary to revise former conclusions. His deductions may be faulty. But the facts are physical ones, and anyone can test in their own district whether moats, mounds, and churches do not line up in straight lines with a hill peak at one end and with bits of old tracks and antiquarian objects on the line. In the Western Counties there is a large field full of history where experiments could well be carried out. The book, which is admirably illustrated, is intensely interesting.
Source info: Cuttings agency.