{50}

{51}

III

CATTLE-TRACKS*

* We use the word “cattle-track” to indicate the routes formed merely by the treading of herds, in contradistinction to the word “cattle-ways,” which we have adopted for roads formed by man for the use of his cattle.

One of the hereditary instincts of gregarious animals is to follow in the footsteps of their recognised leader; and this habit among cattle, if acted on uninterruptedly for a sufficient period, will cause certain well-marked routes to be formed on the land.

The tendency of rabbits to congregate together is well known, and those who have examined the hill settlements of early man must have observed the rabbit runs on the sides of the embankments. Sometimes the sides are too steep for the rabbits to form a headlong course straight up and down, and they then strike a perfectly horizontal one. These parallel runs in time become trodden around the steep sides, and are formed with such perfect regularity that a child could safely walk up the sides of the steepest embankment as though mounting a broad and even staircase.

On hillsides where sheep have been allowed to roam for very long periods, we may observe that regular beaten courses have been formed by their feet. In the vast plain of Central Canada the tracks {52} of the now extinct herds of buffalo may be seen stretching from horizon to horizon: these may be traced from one watering place to another on the route of their annual migrations.

This hereditary instinct of herding animals to follow exactly in the footsteps of their leaders is well recognised; and, on Salisbury Plain and its neighbourhood, the cattle-tracks thus formed some thousands of years ago may be seen to this day deeply scored in the land.

The cattle-tracks to which we shall presently refer appeal to us perhaps with especial force, as showing how century after century the husbandry of the race occupying the encampments was continued without change or interruption.

On the river Avon is the small village of Durnford, about six miles north of Salisbury, and on the crown of the hill on the east side of Durnford is a hill settlement known as Ogbury Camp. A comparatively new road has been constructed about a quarter of a mile to the south-west of the Camp; and on the east side of this road it will be seen that the land has been deeply scored by trenches from two to three feet deep, and that one trench is perhaps as much as ten feet deep.

There is obviously no preconceived design in the laying out of these tracks. They commence just below the brow of the hill, and may be traced from thence descending toward the river Avon in the valley
{53} {54}{Blank} XXI.—View showing cattle-tracks near Ogbury Camp, with quarry in the foreground {55} below. The brow of the hill, which is here defined by a cutting for a lane, is under cultivation, and the tracks in consequence cannot be traced, nor can they be traced in the valley below, for the land is here again under cultivation; but in the intermediate space between the brow and the valley the tracks are well defined.

At some points in their course perhaps two or more lead into each other and are then continued as one. The lines of these trenches are in fact just such as might be taken by herds of cattle following their leader from the high lands to the river below. They are cattle-tracks.

A good section of the land has been exposed, where a quarry has been formed cutting through the lines of the cattle-tracks. From this section it may be seen that the cattle-tracks form trench-like depressions in the land, cutting through the natural stratification.

In support of the theory that these trenches are worn down from the surface of the land, it is an important point to observe that the embankments which rise between them are not formed of made-up earth. If man had dug out these trenches he would probably have thrown up the excavated earth, thus forming mounds between the trenches; but that this is clearly not the case may be seen in the exposed section of the land where the quarry has been made.

The subsoil is chalk, and the depth of these cattle-{56}tracks indicates that the cattle had been habitually, and probably for centuries, trampling the same roads. Situated as they are close to Ogbury Camp, it seems apparent to us that this particular hill settlement must have been in constant occupation, and that it was not simply, as is often assumed to have been the case with hill settlements in general, a place of refuge in time of danger.

We have shown at Cissbury that man had constructed roadways for his cattle leading up to, and down from, the settlement to the dew-pond below; and we have also shown by this example, and by the entrenchments around the dew-pond at Chanctonbury, which are contemporary with the rest of the earthworks, that the art of the construction of dew-ponds was known to neolithic man. Here on the cattle-tracks close to Ogbury Camp we will show further evidence to the same effect.

Undoubtedly it was in the wooded and marshy lands of the valleys that the cattle of neolithic man were most exposed to danger, for it would be here that the wolves would be likely to roam and probably to collect near the habitual watering places of the cattle. In winter time, if food were scarce, the cattle would be especially exposed to danger; and early man, armed only with his implements of flint, would probably have found difficulty in protecting his herds.

So, as it appears to us, he conceived the idea at Ogbury that it would be wise to construct a dew-pond
{57} {58}{Blank} XXII.—View showing the dew-pond constructed on the line of the cattle-tracks near Ogbury Camp {59} on the high land in order to supply his herds with water, and thus to avoid exposing them to the attendant risks of the river below.

It was in fact no easy problem which presented itself to him. On the one hand, if his cattle continued to go down to the river to get water, there was the risk of the wolves; and yet, on the other hand, how could he induce his herds to leave their well-trodden roads and drink from the dew-pond he proposed to construct?

These early herdsmen were probably keenly alive to the natural instincts of their cattle, and the hereditary instincts of the herds to follow their leader would probably have been more pronounced in those days than it is now, after the lapse of at least four thousand years of breeding under man’s fostering care. The men must have been aware that it would be no easy matter to induce the leaders of the cattle to depart from their well-trodden roads in order to drink the insipid water on the shadeless banks of a dew-pond when there was the cool and refreshing river flowing in the shade of the trees in the valley below.

The dew-pond neolithic man here constructed for his herds fairly and squarely met the difficulty. Right in the middle of the cattle-tracks he dug it. It apparently is so designed as to intercept all the cattle-ways except one, the obvious intention being to leave the cattle no alternative but to get their water at the dew-pond, or to pass by along the one way which we think was purposely left intact. {60}

This one cattle-track which runs just outside the dew-pond is trodden down to a far greater depth than any of the others. We think that this particular way was purposely left for the cattle, so that it might be traversed by them while the dew-pond was being constructed.

It was probably anticipated that the peace of mind of the cattle would not be unduly disturbed if at all events one of their traditional routes to the river were left untouched.

All this is rather hypothetical; but if we have read aright the difficulty which presented itself to early man and the means he took to get over it, we cannot help admiring his ingenuity, and we now regret having to record that apparently this effort on his part to preserve his herds was a failure.

It was rash of him to attempt to construct a dew-pond on a peculiarly unsuitable piece of land. Alongside of these trenches is the even and unbroken gentle slope of the hill; here he could have built his dew-pond with far less labour and with far greater probability of success.

The dew-pond in the midst of the cattle-tracks we fear never held water. The old tracks run sharply down to it, and the same old tracks reappear again beyond it.

There is nothing to indicate that the dew-pond had been constantly used for watering the herds, and much which tends to show the reverse. Perhaps it is pos-
{61} {62}{Blank} XXIII.—View of cattle-tracks near road leading from Amesbury to Stonehenge converging on dew-pond by railings in foreground {63} sible that there may have been some slight trickle of water down the trenches during heavy rain which would have moistened the layer of reeds or straw below the clay, in which case, as we have before shown, the thermo-dynamics of the dew-pond would have been upset. But there is yet further evidence of the failure of the dew-pond as a means of supplying the herds with water. The depth of the cattle-tracks, intercepted by the construction of the dew-pond, does not perhaps exceed three feet, whereas the depth of the solitary cattle-track which runs just outside the boundary of the dew-pond is about ten feet. From this fact it seems clear to us that this particular cattle-track had to be used by the cattle on their way to the river, not only while the dew-pond was being constructed, but for very many years afterwards. The other cattle-tracks had been rendered impassable by the impeding dew-pond. It was not the dry crust at the bottom of the dew-pond which was impassable; but it was the bank at the side of the dew-pond towards the valley which must have been too steep for the cattle to descend. So the cattle continued to trample still deeper the one way which had been left to them.

Ogbury Camp is somewhat off the beaten track, and is little visited, as it is not considered as having any particular interest; but we know of no better example of cattle-tracks than those which may be found adjacent to this settlement. {64}

Traces of cattle-tracks may be observed along the road which leads from Amesbury towards Stonehenge. Just by the fork of the road where one branch leads to Winterbournestoke and the other to Maddington, the road stands at a higher level than the land on either side of it. At an earlier epoch this low-lying land was under water, and clear evidence of this fact may be seen in the cattle-tracks which descend from the higher ground to the valley below. The ground here on either side of the road has been trodden into comparatively deep tracks in a precisely similar manner to those we have observed at Ogbury Camp.

At a later epoch it would appear that the water in the valley subsided, and that neolithic man constructed a dew-pond so as to continue to supply his herds with water at the same spot. We here again, as at Ogbury, observe the care man took to try and procure water for the cattle in such a position that it was not necessary for them to leave their traditional tracks. The only difference between the two is that the dew-pond at Ogbury was built at the to of the hill, and the one we are now considering near Stonehenge was built in the valley. Presumably at this spot, so close to the sacred grounds of Stonehenge, there was not the same danger to the herds as existed in the valley of the Avon near Ogbury Camp.

If one looks in a southerly direction along this valley one may see, at a point less than a quarter of a mile
{65} {66}{Blank} XXIV.—View of cattle-tracks near to Figsbury Ring {67} beyond the dew-pond, that a small and comparatively modern building has been erected; this was constructed to contain the gearing of a pump.

It would be interesting to know what is the actual difference of the water level now, as compared with the level at which the water stood when the cattle were able to obtain their water in the valley, and subsequently at the dew-pond.

Stonehenge lies but a few hundred yards along the road, and the fascinating and mysterious attractions of this structure are of so absorbing a nature that few of the passers-by observe the corrugations in the land which we have been attempting to describe.

At the top of the gently sloping side to this valley, and on the Amesbury side, a clump of trees may be seen; and around this clump of trees is a low embankment not more than three or four feet high. There are many openings in the embankment, and it seems to us that this enclosure was merely a cattle-enclosure. The absence of any form of defence again shows that the land adjacent to Stonehenge was considered safe from attack. The cattle-tracks we are here describing were doubtless formed by the cattle which were herded together within this enclosure.

On some parts of the land one may see the whole side of a hill furrowed by these tracks. A curious example of this may be seen near to Figsbury Ring on the hillside above the road leading from Salisbury to Stockbridge. At the point in this road where the {68} Roman road, starting from Old Sarum, strikes the one to Stockbridge, these scorings are particularly well marked and extensive.

Figsbury Ring is but a quarter of a mile north of the Stockbridge Road, and it seems possible that these corrugations of the land indicate that the cattle were contained within the Ring.

Figsbury Ring is of the same class of settlement as Old Sarum; that is to say, there is a central citadel defended by a surrounding trench; beyond this trench there is a flat terrace of land, around which again is another encircling entrenchment.

The broad ways which lead through the outer encircling entrenchment to the flat terrace of land seem to us to indicate clearly that they were so constructed to admit herds of animals; whereas the approaches to the central citadel from the flat terrace are comparatively narrow, as at Old Sarum. We are strongly drawn to the conclusion that the flat terrace of land contained between the outer and the inner trench around the citadel was entirely given up to the herding of the animals, and that the humans alone occupied the citadel. By this arrangement, which is clearly indicated by the different widths of the openings, the animals upon which the life of the humans depended would be always under observation.

Unfortunately, the land immediately surrounding and within Figsbury Ring has been brought under cultivation, and it is therefore impossible to say with
{69} {70}{Blank} XXV.—Distant view of cattle-tracks near Figsbury Ring {71} certainty that the cattle-tracks, which are so apparent close to the road, did ultimately lead to Figsbury Ring.

In conclusion we may observe that the trenches, which are marked upon the Ordnance Surveys, and which are described as ditches, are in no way connected with any form of defence.

A more careful inspection than we have been able to bestow upon the subject will, we fancy, prove that there is a definite connection between the cattle-tracks and the various camps in the immediate neighbourhood of which they are generally found.