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OLD HAMPSHIRE WAYS

Sir,—I have just read a copy of Country Life (containing an article by S. E. Scammell with the title Old Hampshire Ways), while on service in Italy as a surveyor R.E. Before the war I read of the discovery by Alfred Watkins between 1921–29 that alignments were general throughout Britain, and indeed across Europe, along the courses of the invading tribes of 2000–1000 b.c., probably the Beaker Folk, and certainly used by later invaders, notably the Celts. Alignments were last used in 670 a.d., when Offa’s and Wat’s Dykes along the Welsh border were cut, aligning at certain stretches. All these discoveries were supported by some 30 observers in several parts of Britain, who contributed their finds in one of Watkins’s four books The Ley-Hunters Manual, the publishers of which suffered a blitz in 1940. The Straight Track Club which Watkins formed before his death in 1929Club formed 1926; Watkins died 1935 hopes after the war to write a handbook and a more detailed work on Watkins’s discovery, and all the facts and data since discovered which have placed the theories of alignments now in the realm of solid indisputable fact.

Colonel Scammell’s article gives the name Cold Harbour (at Heniard) as indicating Roman occupation. A number of Watkins’s followers have found over 500 Coldharbours all over Britain—and every one is on an alignment; and Cole-Arbor can be traced to either Celtic or Anglo-Saxon meanings. The majority are merely road junction names, without any ancient building or site known, and many are placed at regular 6-mile distances apart; where one is missing may be found a Begger’s Bush or Beggar’s Roost, etc., Begas being Celtic for bush. So, in addition to the fact that the Romans, being more realistic and practical, did not align their straight roads, as their precursors did, to hilltops and tree clumps, the evidence of names refutes {826} Colonel Scammell’s suggestion about Coldharbour.—K. H. Koop, Sapper, R.E.

[We have sent our correspondent’s letter to Colonel Scammell, now in India, who replies as follows:

I have read Mr. Koop’s letter very closely and with great interest. I fear, however, that I must still number among the monstrous regiment of sceptics who regard the relation between leys and ridgeways as rather similar to that between astrology and astronomy. We know the system of settlement and lines of communication native to the Britons and their successors; it was a system of ridgeways and not Mr. Koop’s system of leys. This is not in dispute. His system, therefore, must pre-date the Britons, and that is in fact his contention. With a few exceptions, there is, I believe, no evidence that the ridgeway system goes back further than the Iron-Bronze Age. Before that, Mr. Koop has a clear field to prove what he can.

In any normal terrain the straight line makes for very difficult, and even impossible, travel, unless, like the Romans, you undertake the labour of metalling: even they were not so enamoured of the straight line as is often supposed. Neolithic Britain is said to have been even wetter than ours. I do not think the ley-hunters have ever suggested their routes were metalled. In so far as the ley implies a track, therefore, the presumption must surely be either that the race responsible was of very low intelligence, which is not compatible with the elaborate organisation implied, or that such a geometric lay-out had some religious significance. Such geometric settlement would necessitate a complete disregard of the usually vital questions of water-supply, food and defence. Such sites as Avebury and Stonehenge are, I believe, now generally considered to date from the Neolithic/Iron Age transition, and imply some religious regard, however obscure, for geometry and astronomy: but to extend a geometric system over thousands of square miles, with an accuracy not far short of that of modern instruments, is a vastly greater matter, and would require very sound proof indeed: particularly since, as I believe, no other known ancient civilisation in any part of the globe exhibits this peculiar characteristic.—Ed.]
 

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OLD HAMPSHIRE WAYS

Sir,—For some years I have been examining both home and foreign maps showing track-ways, artificial ridges, rows of standing stones and of cairns—the subject of a correspondent’s letter, Old Hampshire Ways (May 11).

These alignments radiate for stretches of miles from apparently important prehistoric stations, and closely agree with alignments directed towards the rising and setting points of the sun at the equinoxes and solstices, March 21, September 23, December 22, and June 22. A line for the stellar equinox of February 26 is found to occur very frequently.

The ancient (Neolithic and Bronze Age) lines differ almost imperceptibly from the modern directions because of nutation and precession. The direction of most of the lines betrays a Neolithic origin. They may differ slightly in the same district according to the varying heights of the observing station and the horizon.

The sub-stations along an alignment are usually found to have been carefully spaced, using standard linear units which agree very closely with their modern survivors—chains, furlongs and miles.

The stations often bear the name Coldharbour, a case of anglicizing from the old Celtic cuil-lair-boreadh.

The cuil-lair means the place (lair) of the sacred cell (cuil). Boreadh means the birth or springing-up of the Sun.

Another favourite and anglified name for a prehistoric station on a solar alignment is Beggar’s Bush. The original Celtic is Beachdair-boisg. The modern Gael, according to district, has two pronunciations for boisg, the commoner being “boy-eesh.” The observer is called the beachdair, while the first flash of the rising sun is called the boisg. Long stretches of straight, artificial earthen ridges are called Buzzard Dykes. In these cases ard or airt means directions, and buzz is the flash.

These are scores of variations, such as Bisley, Baslow, Busby, Baschurch, Pasley. The Cornish Boscawen with its stone-circles seems to be related to the flash (bos) at dawn (caomhainn or camhanauch).

These are legions of rows of prehistoric sites marked often merely by lines of cross-roads or boundary junctions. Why should not the reader test them by crucial experiments in his own locality, with map, and at next mid-Summer—both for sunrise and sunset?

The alignments show little regard for water-supply, transport or defence. They are astronomical and concern belief linking the spiritual nature of prehistoric man with the supernatural beings he imagined were associated with the celestial bodies, particularly the sun.—Ludovic McL. Mann, 183, West George Street, Glasgow.