Sir,
Your very cordial and favourable review of my recent book on this subject emboldens me to send your readers a very practical hint which is not in the book for discovering these old trackways.
I might remark that, as an old wheelman who has owned and used almost every type through the gamut of 54 inch ordinary, Otto bicycle, tricycle, modenr bicycle, motor bicycle, steam and petrol cars, I speak of what I know.
The hint is this – that when in travelling you see steadily fixed in front of your eyes (not shifting to right or left) for some distance, a hill point or mound, it is a strong indication (not a proof) that bit of road coincides with an ancient sighted track. As soon as opportunity serves test the matter on a 1 inch Ordnance map, any smaller scale is useless.
A friend tellls me that cycling towards Glastonbury Glastonbury Tor was fixed in front for some distance on the road.
Your review was so kindly that I hesitate to make one personal explanation. It may be done to a curtly worded sentence in my own introduction, but in the review I almost seem to be labelled as “a theorist” and “a person who has given little previous study to the matter”.
Let me explain that my knowledge of the moats, mounds and trackways in my own district is gained from 50 years familiarity, and that for over 30 years I have at intervals been engaged in systematic archaelogical survey and observation on varied subjects, from Crosses to Dovecots, my paper on the latter subject being read to the Royal Archaelogical Societies meeting in 1891. My ignorance – until a little over a year ago – of a complete sighting system being used for prehistoric trackways was an ignorance shared by everyone else.
Yours truly,
Hereford, July 12th., 1922.
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