Early British Trackways.—By Alfred Watkins. Hereford: The Watkins Meter Co. London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co. 4s. 6d. net.
This lecture, delivered at Hereford in 1921, dealing with trackways, moats, mounds, camp sites, and other subjects dear to antiquaries and all those who possess the archæological mind, is a veritable “multum in parvo,” presented to the reader in attractive guise, illustrated with many excellent photographs and maps, the whole intended to explain and verify what is claimed to be “a big discovery.” There is a foreword to the lecture in its book form addressed to the “average reader,” enjoining him to note “that the important point in this booklet is the previously undiscovered string of facts, which make it necessary to revise former conclusions.” The amended theory we are asked to accept is that “apparently from the Neolithic (later flint) age, on past the Roman occupation, into a period of decay, all trackways were in straight lines, marked out by experts on a sighting system,” so that there must have been surveyors in pre-historic times, who could not very well have left any records of their surveys, although Mr. Watkins’ photographs indicate some of the “sighting” stations in Herefordshire and neighbouring counties. We are left to conjecture whether the rest of England has similar memorials or signs of these ancient trackways, and the writer, whose experience, like Sam Weller’s knowledge of London, has been extensive and peculiar, must admit that Berks, Bucks and Oxon would on examination provide many spots that may have been sighting stations. Brill and Muswell Hills, the Berkshire Downs, Nettlebed, and many points on the Chilterns, Finchampstead Ridges, and, going a little further north, North Edge Hill, are a few points of many which might be visited to verify the newly discovered theory. There are some interesting pages devoted to the elucidation of the origin of place-names, always, by the way, productive of much controversy, and some of the author’s conclusions in that direction are certainly open to challenge. Be that as it may, there is cause for gratitude in the indication of additional features of interest in our country rambles, and residents in Herefordshire in particular should value this addition to their books of local topography. Those readers who have access to “The Beauties of England and Wales,” published early in the nineteenth century, will find a picture and account of Wigmore Castle, of which a beautiful photograph is given in the book under notice.
Source info: Cuttings agency, month cropped.