Sir—So far as they apply to trackways around Hereford, Mr. Alfred Watkins’ facts are not in dispute; my criticisms were directed to his deductions. He does not attempt to disprove my contention, which would destroy the basis of his argument, that it is much more probable that camps, moats, barrows, tumps, stones, and trees followed the lines of existing ancient trackways, than that they were placed in position as guides for surveyors when tracks were being laid out.
It would have been easy, as I suggested, for Mr. Watkins to apply his untenable theories to existing prehistoric trackways such as Peddar’s Way, the Icknield Way, and the Drove. Instead of that, he puts a ruler on a map of Norfolk and moves it round in any direction until he gets three or four churches or other points on the line and then has the temerity to suggest that these were points in a hypothetical sighting system associated with the imaginary lay-out of early trackways. It is a well-known fact that in a county like Norfolk, with over 700 villages, numerous hamlets, and over 650 ancient churches, it is almost impossible to place a foot ruler anywhere on the one-inch map without finding that it lies on one or two churches, “fragments of existing roads, on cross roads and junctions, on ancient mansions and homesteads.”
Mr. Watkins gives ten such lines, and I do not dispute their accuracy. They, however, prove nothing. Mr. Watkins contends that these points were originally sighting-points in the lay-out of ancient trackways connecting these places. I know all these places, have a fair acquaintance with ancient maps, have tested the lines on the one-inch map, and have no hesitation in saying that there is not a scrap of evidence for the assertion. No. 6, for example, crosses the Yare Valley and passes through Rockland Broad; No. 7 crosses the Waveney Valley; No. 8 crosses the Yare Valley twice; No. 9 crosses the Bure and Yare Valleys, and passes through Surlingham Broad; and No. 10 crosses the Waveney and Yare Valleys.
Existing prehistoric trackways show that they always followed the ridges or the sides of the valleys; that they avoided crossing river valleys, which were then impassable morasses; and that if a man wanted to get from the present site of Brooke Church to the site of two churches in Yarmouth—then a sandbank in the estuary—he did not think it necessary to spend most of his time in the swamps of the Yare Valley. He followed the ridges, covered a much longer distance, and got there much quicker.
Mr. Watkins’ theory is ingenious; he will find support for his straight lines in the maps of any county in
England; but he will find few local topographers to accept his conclusions.
YOUR REVIEWER.
Source info: MS note by AW “Eastern Daily Press date as last”; checked in library.