We have received from the author, Mr. Alfred Watkins, of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club, a volume on “Early British Trackways, Moats, Mounds, Camps, and Sites,” which is well illustrated from photos taken by the author, and is really an expanded lecture delivered to his society at Hereford last year. The district dealt with is that of the West of England, and does not take in our own county, although if Mr. Watkins’ conclusions are justified, examples could be found in Hampshire.
His main object appears to be to prove that in prehistoric times there were direct lines of communication from place to place, and that in the construction of these roads or trackways a course was adopted which hitherto is supposed only to belong to the Roman period, of making the road fairly straight by using certain objects for sight lines. These lines of trackway he calls “leys,” rejecting the interpretation of this word as Saxon for meadow, and considers that it is in this sense “ley” enters so largely into place names.
The objects brought into requisition to serve for sighting are various, and include tumuli, hill tops, megalithic monuments—and even wells and ponds. Churches and manor-houses are also said to lie thickly along the line of the “leys,” and even lines of fir trees. The mingling of objects dating from those of Neolithic date to modern times is rather confusing, and in our opinion militates against the object the writer has in view. Nevertheless, any one who takes to the field for the purpose of testing Mr. Watkins’ conclusions, will have healthy and agreeable recreation.
Source info: Cuttings agency.