To the Editor of the “Daily Express.”
Sir,—The review on Mr. Watkins’ book, “Early British Trackways,” is most interesting.
In this locality there are the remains of a neolithic village, and I have often been impressed by the network of tracks that converge toward it, not at haphazard, but showing evidence of design and precision.
A fascinating side of the subject is the number of uncanny tales told of prehistoric highways. One might almost reconstruct a forgotten and obliterated road from the evidence of the ghostly legends attached to it at various points, and then confirm the surmise by consulting the ordnance map.
When we country-people have worn down a pickaxe too short for further use we send it to the village blacksmith to be
lengthened. He welds on a new piece of steel and duly returns the axe, together with the bill for “leyning”
the same, but the word is generally spelt “laining” or “layning,” according to individual taste.
Dorset.H. R. B.
Source info: Cuttings agency; checked in library.