path: root/69934-0.txt

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 69934 ***

  [Illustration: FRONTISPIECE.

    1. Castle Tomen, Radnor Forest.
    2. A Glade on a Ley.
    3. Four Stones, New Radnor.]




    Early British
    Trackways, Moats,
    Mounds, Camps,
    and Sites.


    A Lecture given to the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club, at Hereford,
    September, 1921, by ALFRED WATKINS, Fellow and Progress Medallist
    (for 1910), of the Royal Photographic Society; Past President (1919)
    of the Woolhope Club. With illustrations by the Author, and much
    added matter.


                                 1922:
                    HEREFORD: THE WATKINS METER CO.
         LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., LTD.




                          TABLE OF CONTENTS.


                                                                PAGE

    TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS                                         4

    FOREWORD                                                       7

    INTRODUCTION                                                   9

    OUTLINE OF CONCLUSIONS                                        10

    PROOF                                                         11

    THE LEY                                                       12

    ANTIQUITY OF THE LEY                                          13

    INDIVIDUALITY OF A LEY                                        13

    MOUNDS                                                        14

    EARTH-CUTTINGS                                                15

    WATER SIGHTING-POINTS                                         15

    MARK-STONES                                                   16

    SIGHTING STONES                                               17

    TREES                                                         19

    CAMPS                                                         20

    CHURCHES                                                      21

    CASTLES                                                       22

    TRADERS’ ROADS                                                22

    HEREFORD TRACKWAYS                                            23

    TRADITIONAL WELLS                                             24

    PREVIOUS DATA                                                 25

    ROMAN ROADS                                                   26

    PLACE NAMES                                                   26

    DISCOVERY BY PLACE NAME                                       30

    THE LEY-MEN                                                   30

    HINTS TO LEY-HUNTERS                                          31

    A FEW LEYS                                                    33

    ENDWORD                                                       34

    INDEX                                                         35

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS                                               41




                        TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


   FRONTISPIECE. Top. Castle Tomen, Radnor Forest, 1,250 feet
   above the sea, and is supposed to be the Cruger Castle of the
   Itinerary of Giraldus. Background. A glade on a ley. Bottom. The
   Four Stones, New Radnor, the easterly pair lined up for sighting
   over.

   PLATE I. PRIMARY PEAK. Titterstone Clee Hill, and Park Hall,
   Bitterley.

   PLATE II. MOUNDS. 1, Tre-fedw, Pandy. The Skirrid, a primary
   peak, in distance. 2, Didley. With homestead alongside.

   PLATE III. MOUND and MOAT. 1, Houghton Mound. 2, Lemore Moat.
   Note how slight is the dividing line between this type of mound
   and a moat.

   PLATE IV. THREE-POINT PROOFS. 1 (a telephotograph), Hereford
   Cathedral and Pen-y-Beacon. Here the camera stood on a known ley
   in gateway near top of Hafod Hill, and the line runs through
   pond at foot (marked by sheet of paper), tower of Cathedral, and
   the 20 mile distant mountain point or bluff. Another ley is seen
   crossing the meadow in a straight line just where “the lowing
   herd winds slowly o’er the lea.” 2, Tre-fedw Mound (see Plate
   II.), shown at top of sighting line down present road to ancient
   Monnow ford (alongside present bridge) at Llanvihangel Mill.

   PLATE V. SIGHTING CUTTINGS (all telephotographs). 1, Notch with
   earthwork at Trewyn Camp above Pandy (Black Mountains). 2,
   Cutting through top of ridge at Marstow, a bridge now spans it,
   and the sighting line down to a ford on the Garron is indicated.
   The road beyond the cutting is on the ley. 3, Black Darren,
   Longtown (Black Mountains). This is taken from the Tan House,
   Longtown, and only 100 yards to right or left the notch begins
   to lessen and then disappear.

   PLATE VI. CAUSEWAYS. 1, Through pond near Ten Houses (now Priory
   Terrace), Holmer. Note the unmistakable direction, confirmed on
   map. 2, Through the River Monnow, behind Tan House, Longtown. A
   piece of fine engineering, the below-stream edge of large stones
   embedded in grouting or concrete. This ley is over the notch in
   Plate V.

   PLATE VII. CAUSEWAYS. 1, Over a ford of Olchon Brook, Longtown.
   2, Ingestone, Ross. Through the “fold” and straight to the
   centre of the pond against the house. I cannot assign a period
   to any of these.

   PLATE VIII. LEYS DISPLAYED. 1, Rhiw (mountain track) south of
   Llanthony Abbey, Mon. This is sighted for Balmawr on the ridge,
   and shows that where possible even mountain side tracks were
   kept straight. Taken in evening light and shows (on left) the
   triple tracks down which it is surmised the tile stones for
   roofing the Abbey to have been slid from the quarry on the top.
   2, Stones at base of ancient Wye-side causeway at Bartonsham
   (formerly Bassam) Farm, Hereford City. The stones continue in a
   “wash-out” in bed of river to right, and the ley is sighted over
   tumps at Hoggs Mount and Holmer Lane. Note on bank to right the
   mark-stone for the ford (see Plate IX.).

   PLATE IX. MARK-STONES. 1, Red Lion, Madley. On a “red line”
   ley from the Whitney pottery. Note subsequent boundary stone
   alongside. 2, Credenhill. 3, Wye Street, Hereford, marking the
   Palace Ford; there are a pair of these stones. Bartonsham Farm,
   Hereford (see Plate VIII.).

   PLATE X. TRANSITION OF MARK-STONE TO CROSS.

   1, Wergin’s Stone, Sutton. With flat face suited for sighting.
   A cavity for payments (or offerings) on the flat base. Early
   example of “shaft and base.” 2, Pedlars Cross above Llanigon. A
   menhir chipped into rude semblance of a cross. 3, In churchyard,
   Vowchurch, unworked base. A ley runs through it. Inset, Sighting
   hole in shaft of Bitterley Cross. 4, In Capel-y-fin churchyard
   (Black Mountains).

   PLATE XI. CHURCHYARD CROSS. Bitterley (see Inset Plate X.).

   PLATE XII. TREE. Eastwood Oak, Tarrington, on a ley.

   PLATE XIII. TREES. 1, A “One Tree Hill” near
   Llanvihangel-nant-Melan. 2, Monnington Walks, an avenue of
   Scotch Firs (Scots Pines) on a ley sighted on Scar Rock,
   Brobury, seen in distance. See Map, Plate XIX.

   PLATE XIV. CAMPS. 1, Sutton Walls. One of the sighting mounds,
   there being four, a pair at eastern end, a pair at this the
   western end. 2, Herefordshire Beacon. Winds Point to the left.

   PLATE XV. CHURCH. Church Lane, Ledbury. The detached tower of
   Ledbury Church is shown on the ley.

   PLATE XVI. CASTLE. Wigmore Castle. The keep is on a sighting
   mound, the ley passing also through the church, as is almost
   invariable where castle and church are near together.

   PLATE XVII. CASTLE. Brampton Bryan Castle (on a sighting mound)
   with Coxall Knoll, another mound, in the distance on the right.

   PLATE XVIII. HOUSE IN MOAT. Gillow.

   PLATE XIX. MAP. TWO LEYS. A, Consecutive strips
   containing the straight ley from Glascwm Hill to Birley Hill
   _via_ four mounds; Turret Tump, The Camp, Batch Twt,
   Almeley, Moat, Sarnesfield Coppice; and Weobley Church.
   B, Little Mountain to Holy Well Malvern, through Moccas
   “Castle” Tump, Preston-on-Wye Church, Byford Ford, Holmer
   Church, Palmer’s Court, Moat, Shucknell, Walsopthorne. Portions
   of two interesting leys are also shown. C, Scar Rock,
   Brobury, through Monnington Walks to Monnington Church (see
   Plate XIII.); and D, Little Mountain (Westbrook),
   through Arthur’s Stone (dolmen), Cross End, Moccas Church,
   Monnington Church, St. Ann’s Well, and Priory Church, Malvern.

   PLATE XX. MAP. Portions of eight leys passing through
   Capel-y-tair-ywen (Chapel of the three yew trees), a chapel
   site, originally a mound, described in Woolhope Transactions,
   1898, p. 38, on the high plateau below the great northern
   escarpment of the Black Mountains. A, Hay Tump (near
   church ford) to Pen-y-Beacon, on to Castle Tump, Rhos-goch.
   B, Mouse Castle to Tumpa, passes through Maes-coch
   (red field), Priory Wood, and the ancient “red” pottery,
   Whitney. C, Merbach to Llanelieu Church. D,
   Mynydd-brith Tump to Talgarth Church. E, Castle Tump,
   Dorstone, to Moat at Felin-fach. F, Snodhill Castle
   to Aberllynfi Gaer; beyond Snodhill it passes to or through
   Holy Well, near Blakemere. G, Michaelchurch Escley to
   Llanigon Mound. H, Black Hill (Olchon) to Painscastle
   Mound.




                               FOREWORD.

                       _To the Average Reader._


I judge that you pick up this booklet with much the same ideas on the
subject that I had a few months ago. The antiquarians had not helped
you or me very much, but had left us with vague ideas and many notes of
interrogation.

On early trackways they alternated between a misty appreciation
of hill-tracks and ridgeways, and an implied depreciation of all
track-makers before the Romans came. To learn the meaning of mounds
they did not go beyond the child’s investigation of a drum, cut it
open to see; and, if nothing was there, quite failed to profit by such
valuable negative evidence. In perhaps one moat in five they found a
dwelling, and argued finely on the defensive importance of a ring of
water; but as to the other four, with no dwelling, and in unexplained
positions, they closed their eyes.

I do not know, dear reader, whether you will be as much astonished
in reading the new facts which I disclose, and the deductions I feel
obliged to make, as I have been in the disclosure. Frankly, if another
person told them to me, I should want to verify before acceptance. And
I try to aid you to verify. But do note this--that the important point
in this booklet is the previously undiscovered string of facts, which
make it necessary to revise former conclusions. My deductions may be
faulty. But the facts are physical ones, and anyone can test in their
own district whether moats, mounds and churches do not line up in
straight lines with a hill peak at one end, and with bits of old tracks
and antiquarian objects on the line.

So please do not begin with the false--as being inapplicable--word
“theory.” I had no theory when, out of what appeared to be a tangle,
I got hold of the one right end of this string of facts, and found to
my amazement that it unwound in orderly fashion and complete logical
sequence.

Make your own deductions when you have verified, and I have tried to
help you.

  [Illustration:

    Plate I.      PRIMARY PEAK.

  Titterstone Clee Hill and Park Hall, Bitterley.]

  [Illustration:

    PLATE II.      MOUNDS.

    1. Tre-Fedw, Pandy. Skirrid in Distance.
    2. Didley.]




                       EARLY BRITISH TRACKWAYS.

                    MOATS, MOUNDS, CAMPS AND SITES.




                             INTRODUCTION.


I have read of a lad who, idly probing a hill-side rabbit hole, saw
a gleam of gold, then more, and in short had found a royal treasury.
And he could not show all to those interested, but only samples, and
he made mistakes in describing the dates and workmanship of the coins,
vessels and jewels. But the treasure was there all the same.

I knew nothing on June 30th last of what I now communicate, and had no
theories. A visit to Blackwardine led me to note on the map a straight
line starting from Croft Ambury, lying on parts of Croft Lane past
the Broad, over hill points, through Blackwardine, over Risbury Camp,
and through the high ground at Stretton Grandison, where I surmise
a Roman station. I followed up the clue of sighting from hill top,
unhampered by other theories, found it yielding astounding results in
all districts, the straight lines to my amazement passing over and over
again through the same class of objects, which I soon found to be (or
to have been) practical sighting points.

For the sake of clearness I will give an outline of the whole method
before furnishing proofs and examples.

It is necessary first to clear the mind of present ideas of roads from
town to town, or with enclosed hedges, also of any assumption that
orderly road planning was introduced by the Romans, and that my paper
is to explain the Roman roads.

Presume a primitive people, with few or no enclosures, wanting a few
necessities (as salt, flint flakes, and, later on, metals) only to
be had from a distance. The shortest way to such a distant point was
a straight line, the human way of attaining a straight line is by
sighting, and accordingly all these early trackways were straight, and
laid out in much the same way that a marksman gets the back and fore
sights of his rifle in line with the target.




                        OUTLINE OF CONCLUSIONS.


During a long period, the limits of which remain to be discovered,
but 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.

Such sighting lines were (in earlier examples) from natural mountain
peak to mountain peak, usually not less than 1,000 ft., in this
district, probably lower heights in flat districts, such points being
terminals.

Such a sighting line (or ley) would be useless unless some further
marking points on the lower ground between were made. Therefore
secondary sighting points were made, easily to be seen by the ordinary
user standing at the preceding sighting point, all being planned on one
straight line. These secondary, and artificial, sighting points still
remain in many cases, either as originally made, or modified to other
uses, and a large number are marked on maps, and are the basis of my
discovery.

They were constructed either of earth, water or stone, trees being also
planted on the line. Sacred wells were sometimes terminals in the line,
and sometimes included as secondary points.

Between the sighting points the trackway ran straight, except in cases
of physical impossibility, but did not of necessity go as far as the
primary hill tops.

Earth sighting points were chiefly on higher ground, and now bear the
name of tump, tumulus, mound, twt, castle, bury, cairn, garn, tomen,
low, barrow, knoll, knap, moat and camp. Another form of earth sighting
point was in the form of a notch or cutting in a bank or mountain ridge
which had to be crossed by the sighting line.

Water sighting points seem to have evolved from the excavations made
for the tumps or moats. Almost all are on low ground, to form a point
or ring of reflection from higher ground, and are now known as moats
and ponds.

Stone sighting or marking points were natural (not dressed) blocks.

Sighting lines were (in earliest examples) up to 50 or 60 miles in
length, later on rather shorter, down to a few miles.

Sighting points were used for commerce and for assemblies of the
people.

  [Illustration:

    PLATE III.      MOUND AND MOAT.

    1. Houghton Mound.
    2. Lemore Moat.]

  [Illustration:

    PLATE IV.      THREE-POINT PROOFS.

    1. Sighting Pond, Hereford Cathedral, Pen-y-Beacon.
    2. Ford at Llanvihangel Mill, Road, Tre-Fedw Mound. (See Plate II.)]

When troublesome times came and stronger defences wanted, the groups of
two or three sighting tumps which came near together (especially on the
top of a hill) often had defensive earthworks added to make a fortified
enclosed camp.

These trackways of successive ages grew so thick on the ground as to
vie in number with present day roads and by-ways.

All forms of sighting points became objects of interest, superstition,
and genuine veneration, and as such were utilized on the introduction
of Christianity.

Practically all ancient churches are on the site of these sighting
points (tumps or stones), usually at a cross of tracks, and there is
evidence that in some cases the churchyard cross is on the exact spot
of the ancient sighting or marking stone.

In time, homesteads clustered round the sighting points, especially the
ponds.

The moats and tumps were often adopted in after ages as sites for the
defensive houses or castles of wealthy owners.

Hundreds of place names give support to these propositions.




                                PROOF.


The facts I have discovered, which lead up to the conclusions, can be
verified for the most part on an inch to mile ordnance map with aid of
a straight edge.

Taking all the earthworks mentioned, add to them all ancient churches,
all moats and ponds, all castles (even castle farms), all wayside
crosses, all cross roads or junctions which bear a place name, all
ancient stones bearing a name, all traditional trees (such as gospel
oaks), marked on maps, and all legendary wells. Make a small ring
round each on a map. Stick a steel pin on the site of an undoubted
sighting point, place a straight edge against it, and move it round
until several (not less than four) of the objects named and marked come
exactly in line.

You will then find on that line fragments here and there of ancient
roads and footpaths, also small bits of modern roads conforming to it.
Extend the line into adjoining maps, and you will find new sighting
points on it, and it will usually terminate at both ends in a natural
hill or mountain peak, or sometimes (in the later examples) in a
legendary well or other objective.

If you travel along the actual sighting line you will find fragments of
the road showing as a straight trench in untilled land, although these
are few and far between, as the plough obliterates it all. The line
usually crosses a river at a known ford or ferry. Sighting tumps not
marked on the map are also to be found.

Two specific proofs are illustrated in Plate IV. and explained in the
Table of Illustrations. Also from the highest point of the earthworks
of Dinedor Camp the spire of All Saints’ Church can be seen precisely
between the pinnacles of Hereford Cathedral, thus showing a sighting
tump and two churches on one ley. The Offa Street example (see under
Churches) is another three-point proof.




                               THE LEY.


The sighting line was called the ley or lay. Numbers of farms and
places on sighting lines bear this first name, viz., the Ley Farms,
Weobley, Grafton, Stoke Edith, and many other places. Wyaston Leys,
Monmouth, Tumpey Ley and Red Lay, near Letton, and Redley in Cusop
parish.

There were cleverly planned high level mountain tracks which, although
on an average sighting line, could not (being on the side of a mountain
ridge) keep straight, but took a serpentine course, in round the cwms,
and out round the headlands. But viewed edgeways they are a straight
line (see Plate VIII.) as keeping a uniform level or slope. Such are
found high on the Malvern ridge, the road (on three leys) through
Oldcastle to Blaen Olchon, the lovely Bicknor Walks near Symonds Yat,
the Precipice Walk near Dolgelly.

There are signs of parallel trackways quite close together, whether one
to take the place of an older one I do not know. And between Malvern
Wells and Hanley Swan are three symmetrical triangular woods (see Map,
Plate XIX.), which I find indicate parallel roads, one-sixth mile
apart, running northwards, and with a collecting road here at right
angles, which comes over the ridge and through Mainstone Court. There
are six of these equidistant parallel roads.

The fact of the ley is embedded in the rural mind. A country man in
directing your path will invariably bring in the now misleading, but
once correct, “keep straight on.” It was once absolutely necessary to
“keep straight on” in the ley, for if you did not you would be de-leyed
on your journey. This is not said as a pun, but as in some succeeding
sentences, to point out the place of the ley in the evolution of our
language.

Where the ley laid in a wood became a glade (see Frontispiece). We
came through one over Worsell Wood in a Club excursion on our way to
Gladestree. Where the ley had lain for a time often became a lane.
This last noun became a verb used in the 18th century enclosure acts,
where ground was “laned out.” Where it was so laned out it became land.
There is a Laynes Farm near Huntley.

It is still a common phrase to go out to see “the lay (or lie) of the
land.”

The trackways are chiefly 6 feet 6 in. to 9 feet wide. I illustrate two
pitched causeways at Longtown, a fine one through the Monnow near the
Tan House, and the other close to a ford over Olchon Brook (Plate VI.).
Another through the farm yard at Ingestone (Ross) going to the centre
of the sighting pond (Plate VII.).




                         ANTIQUITY OF THE LEY.


The word “ancient” covers a vast period. If--as I have proved--the
tumps or burys are sighting tumps, excavations also prove that they
usually date back to the Neolithic age, which, according to Mr. Ault’s
recent “Early Life in Britain,” cannot be later than 2,000 B.C., and
may be 4,000 B.C. A prehistoric trackway might, therefore, be planned
and made more than three thousand years before the Old Road (which is a
route rather than a road) was devised or evolved--as Mr. Belloc so well
describes--as a Pilgrim’s Way from Winchester to Canterbury.

I have found that the persistent things down the ages are not the
courses of the roads or tracks, but their sighting points, and
that cross roads with a place name are such. Place names are also
persistent, some of them going back to prehistoric times, but others
evidently mediæval. But the real dating of the leys and when the system
fell into decay is for future investigation.




                        INDIVIDUALITY OF A LEY.


Each ley or track was as separate and distinct from other leys as each
animal or tree is an organism distinct from other animals or trees.
As they crossed each other, no doubt users often transferred from one
to the other at the crossing, and struck out in an altered direction,
hence the place name element “turn.” But the way thus travelled was a
route, not a road. It is an absurdity to speak of a sighted road having
branches, or bending. Each individual track was “a long lane that has
no turning.”

Previous writers, treating, say, of Roman or of mediæval roads, not
knowing of the existence of the ley, assume that they are speaking of
original primary structures, when they are only describing a route
evolved from a number of the leys I describe, retaining the sighted
structure in the case of Roman roads, but losing most of it by mediæval
times.

Many leys acquired in after ages individual names from the use they
were put to, and such names were transferred to the sighting points.

I find in several cases a group of leys with sighting points passing
quite close to, and taking no notice of, quite a distinct group of leys
with other sighting points, the two sets being either of two different
periods, or part of separate systems made by different sets of ley-men
living in different districts.

A most surprising fact is the enormous number of leys.




                                MOUNDS.


The mounds whose many names I have mentioned are artificial. I do not
question the fact that they were often used as burial mounds, and
perhaps even built with that end in view; but the straight leys on
which I find practically all in this district line up (in connection
with other sighting points) prove their primary purpose to be sighting
tumps. Arthur’s Stone, a dolmen, which was probably the core of a
burial tump, is on two sighting lines.

I find various stages of evolution of the tump. The small tump at a
road junction for the local road construction, examples at Cross in
Hand, Belmont, Hungerstone, Shelwick old Turnpike, near Bowley Town
(called the Stocks). With most of these the pond from which the earth
was dug adjoins. When much larger tumps were wanted the trench of
earth to make them was dug in the form of a ring, and a moated tump
resulted, as at Eardisland (with water), Pont Hendre, Longtown (dry).
The water in these excavations proved to be splendid sighting points
by reflection from higher ground, and the moats with no tump but a
flat plateau within a ring of water evolved. Many tumps on banks, as
at Tre-Fedw, near Pandy, show no excavations. Many tumps were at the
junction of leys, showing the technical skill of the early surveyors,
who must have moved a temporary sighting point on one ley until it fell
in the line of a second ley. A sighting tump always commanded a fine,
clear view in at least two directions, and in after ages was coveted
as a dwelling spot. At Didley is an instance of the simple homestead
against it. Thus sighting produced the sites, this being only one of
many instances where the record of the ley is embedded in the English
tongue. The generic name of Merry Hill applied (as near Hereford) to
many tumps gives a clue to their use as assembly points for recreation,
confirmed by folk lore and surviving customs of dancing in a circle
with hands linked. The folk-mote was held at a tump with a dry moat, so
admirably adapted for seating.

  [Illustration:

   PLATE V.

  SIGHTING CUTTINGS.

   1. Trewyn Camp, Black Mountains.

   2. Marstow, Road Spanned by Bridge.

   3. Black Darren, Longtown.]

  [Illustration:

   PLATE VI.

  CAUSEWAYS.

   1. Through Pond, Ten Houses, Holmer.

   2. Through River Monnow, Longtown.]




                            EARTH CUTTINGS.


Where a mountain ridge stood in the path of a ley, the surveyor,
instead of building a tump on the ridge as a sighting point, often cut
a trench at the right angle and in the path of the ley. This shows as
a notch against the sky and makes a most efficient sighting point from
below. I have counted eight such artificial notches in the mountain
ridge when on the road from Llanvihangel Crucorney to Longtown. Each
notch can only be seen on the line of sight, and disappears when a
quarter of a mile right or left. They are sometimes emphasised (as at
Trewyn Camp) by an earth work thrown up on one side. The Wych on the
Malvern ridge is an instance.

The two fine gaps near Flansford (Goodrich) and Marstow (Plate V.),
both with bridges over them, are also ancient sighting cuttings.

The sighting cuttings were also used in passing over banks in lower
ground. Cullis is one of the names for such an earth cutting, as
Portcullis between Withington and Preston Wynne, and High Cullis above
Gatley Park, recently visited by the Club.

There is a very neat example of such a cutting at Hungerstone, near
Allensmore, where the cutting in the bank allows the ley to be sighted
on to a pond on its way to the next tump, the one close to the church
at Thruxton.

The word hunger (a common place-name element) indicates, I think, a
cutting through a bank, not the bank itself, as now surmised. There are
cuttings at most fords, which permit the water to be seen from above
and serve as sighting points. The cutting near Charing Cross, which
gives the name to the present Hungerford foot-bridge, probably came
down through Inigo Jones’ beautiful Water Gate.

Mr. Codrington in his book on Roman Roads describes the method used
by Roman engineers “well known to surveyors for laying out a straight
line between extreme points not visible from each other, from two or
more intermediate points from which the extreme points are visible. By
shifting the intermediate points alternately all are brought to lie in
a straight line.” This method was evidently used for all the leys.




                        WATER SIGHTING POINTS.


I have suggested how these might have developed from the tump, and
shown where pond and tump were used together. Moats are a similar
arrangement on a larger scale. The trackways go straight for the island
part of the moat. It is not the least amazing part of this revelation
that I find practically all the small horse or cattle ponds in field
or homestead which are marked on a 6in. ordnance map have leys running
through them, and that examination in dry seasons shows signs of the
road passing through them. “And when we cleaned the pond out we found
it cobbled at the bottom” is a frequent report made by a farmer. I show
a photograph of one of these at Bridge Sollars, with the trench of the
road beyond.

A beautifully constructed causeway of even pitched stones is to be seen
at the foot of Holmer Hill (Plate VI.). It has well defined edges, and
lies at the bottom of a small sighting pond. In the crevices of its
stones I found fragments of crude red pottery, with a bit of early
(Anglo-Saxon) ornament, a bit of iron slag, and a bit of iron. This ley
is sighted on the North Hill, Malvern.

I cannot say that passengers walked through the bottom of these ponds
(most of them have one shelving edge, with the opposite bank steep),
but to this day an ancient road (at Harley Court, Hereford) does go
through the bottom of a small pond, being sighted through the Cathedral.

When there is a large central island on a moat I surmise early dwelling
houses--a subject for spade research. There evidently came a wish for
roads not running through the water, and a pair of ponds or lakes with
a causeway between, such as we find at Holmer fish ponds, is frequently
found on the map, and is the sure indication of an ancient trackway.
Probably the square moats are later than the circular ones. I saw in
the grass the track of a 15-foot road (probably Roman construction)
making straight for the centre of Yarkhill Moat.

Many ponds (as at Belmont, The Burcot, and adjoining Ledbury
Churchyard) not known as moats are really such, their islands being
sighting points.

The causeway to the centre of the moat evidently suggested their use
(many ages after they were made) as a defensive ring of the house of a
rich owner, as at Brinsop, Badesley Clinton, Gillow, etc.

I think that the word lake, now used for large sheets of water, was
originally applied to small reflecting sighting ponds as well. The
place names of Sutton Lakes, Withington Lakes, Letton Lakes, and Tumpy
Lakes are explained by this theory.




                             MARK STONES.


These (Plate IX.) were used to mark the way. They were of all sizes,
from the Whetstone on Hargest Ridge to a small stone not much larger
than a football. Some were long stones or menhirs, but few remain
upright in this district. I know of three lying fallen on leys, namely
on the wall at the south gate of Madley Churchyard, near the inn at
Bush Bank (cross road from Weobley), and used as a bridge over a ditch
near the Field Farm on the Litley-Carrots path.

I show photographs of a fine stone at Red Lion, Madley, having a flat
top, and of the type which developed into market stones. The market
stone at Grosmont Town Hall (on which the first market basket placed
on market day paid no toll) is the successor of such a mark stone. Two
marking stones (with ancient brick houses built partly on them) stand
unnoticed in the short Wye Street, just over Wye Bridge at Hereford.
They mark the Palace Ford, and a ley from Castle Hill to Hunderton.
They are of the same peculiar stone (not “old red”) as at Madley,
Colwall, etc.

Wergin’s Stone (Plate X.) is a late type of mark stone which was the
prototype of the churchyard and wayside crosses, all of which I think
are on the sites of original mark stones, as I find leys passing
through them.

In studying such crosses, I was puzzled to find several (as at
Vowchurch, Hentland, Capel-y-fin) with ancient rough unworked stones
as a base. I am now certain that these bases are the original stones
marking a ley. The Pedlar’s Cross near Pen-y-lan Farm above Llanigon
(mentioned in Miss Jacob’s fine story, “The Sheep Stealers”) has been
chipped into a rude suggestion of a cross without taking down, and a
flat mark stone on which Archbishop Baldwin is said (by tradition) to
have preached when on his tour with Giraldus in 1188, has had a cross
inscribed on it. It stands close to St. Ishaw’s Well at Partricio.

There is a striking marking stone on the Rhiw Wen route in the Black
Mountains.

Other stones on leys are:--White Stone, Withington (with original
stone at the base of an inverted fragment of its successor--a wayside
cross); Queen Stone, Huntsham, at Credenhill cross-roads, at the foot
of Froom’s Hill, on the road near Turnaston Church, marking a ford at
Bartonsham Farm, Hereford, and Crossways, Bollingham. The stone that
all the Kings of England are crowned on is certainly a mark stone.




                           SIGHTING STONES.


Mark stones may be on one side of the track, as are the whitewashed
stones which mark a coastguard’s cliff walk to-day. But there also
appear to have been sighting points of stone exactly on the ley, so
constructed as to indicate its direction.

The Four Stones near Harpton, New Radnor, are four upright boulders
(see Frontispiece) in an irregular quadrangle, and no one has explained
their purpose.

I took sighting lines over successive pairs of stones, five lines being
possible, and although the work on the map is not yet completed, I can
definitely say that the “Four Stones” are directing posts which point
out at least two leys, proved by passing through other good points. The
first goes to the highest point in Deerfold Forest (The Camp, 940ft.)
in one direction, and in the other through The Folly and on the main
road at Llanvihangel-nant-Melan, over Bryn-y-Maen Hill, here appearing
to strike another “four stones,” and through Llansaintfraed in Elvel
Church to some peak beyond.

The second ley starts from Bach Hill (one of the highest parts of the
Radnor Forest); through the Four Stones, dead on main road through
Walton village, dead on main road past Eccles Green, through Upperton
Farm and Kenchester Church, and dead on the present road which is the
S.W. boundary of the Roman station of Magna; then going over the Wye
through Breinton Church.

Bitterley Churchyard Cross has a circular hole through its shaft at a
convenient height for sighting. Mr. J. C. Mackay kindly had the exact
direction of this taken for me by sighting compass. It is 28½° E. of
Magnetic N., and this on the map exactly strikes Abdon Burf (or Barf),
the high point (1,790ft.) of the Brown Clee. Southwards the line runs
through Stoke Prior and Hope-under-Dinmore Churches, is confirmed in
other ways, and goes over the Wye at Belmont House.

Bitterley Cross is of 14th century date; it must be the successor of a
sighting stone which in some way pointed the direction of the ley, and
it suggests that sighting along a ley had not quite died out by the
14th century.

These two proved instances of sighting stones, together with the cases
of stone rows on Dartmoor, and sighting columns on Sutton Walls, will
give the clue to the hitherto unknown purpose of many important ancient
stone monuments.

It is probable that the flat face of a mark stone, as in Wergin’s Stone
(Plate X.), pointed out a ley. There is a Dial Post near Tewkesbury
which, with the Dial Carreg near Cwm-yoy, seems to denote the above
purpose, and the last stone is an upright shaft of rectilinear shape
like the supposed cross at Capel-y-fin (Plate X.).

  [Illustration:

   PLATE VII.

  CAUSEWAYS.

   1. Over Olchon Brook, Longtown.

   2. To Centre of Pond, Ingestow, Ross.]

  [Illustration:

   PLATE VIII.

  LEYS DISPLAYED.

   1. Track Climbing Ridge, Llanthony Abbey.

   2. Straight Wye-side Causeway, Bartonsham, Hereford.]




                                TREES.


I find that practically all the named historic trees (including Gospel
Oaks) stand on leys. Such as King’s Acre Elm, Eastwood Oak, Great Oak
at Eardisley, Oak near Moreton-on-Lugg Bridge, etc. Place names (which
in my previous articles on Crosses I too hastily held to signify the
site of a cross) also indicate trees as marks. Such are Lyde Cross
Tree, Cross of the Tree at Deerfold, Cross Oak, Cross Ash, Cross Colloe
(hazel tree cross), and two leys cross at these points. Actual trees
are shown at the cross roads in two of the above in Taylor’s fine
county map of 1757.

The Oak in the horse-shoe meadow at Ross is on the ley passing over
Over Ross (the place name indicates it) and Wilton Castle. The steep
little street coming down to the river from the Swan Hotel is dead on
this ley.

Where a natural hill came under a ley it was often made a sighting
point by the planting of a single tree, hence the numerous “one tree”
hills, as at Backbury and on the Holmer Golf Links. All places called
“The Grove” seem to be on a ley, and a small group of trees (as at
Ladylift) was also used to mark a sighting point. Existing trees are
probably successors of original ones.

I see evidence that at one time such trees were called the “stock.” The
site of the wayside cross at Winforton is known as the Stocks, and a
marking tump in the lane for Bowley Town (or Court) has an ash on it,
and is called by the same name, as are farms at Wellington, Almeley
Woonton, etc. The highest point (a hill near the Three Elms on the
“Roman” road from Kenchester to Lugg Bridge) is marked on the map as
Bobblestock Hill. I have known it as Bubblestock, but have no doubt
it was Baublestock, the tree or stock (we still buy apple stocks in
the market) where men who peddled necklaces and other baubles met the
buyers. To-day, if you ask in a shop whether they keep such goods, you
will, perhaps, be told that they have a good stock of them.

I think that the pole (Layster’s Pole, Yarpole, Lyepole, etc.) was a
form of sighting point, lingering on to recent times as the May pole.

Every considerable avenue of trees (as in parks of country seats) which
I have tested has a ley down its centre.

Monnington Walks, a Scotch Fir avenue a mile long (Plate XIII.), is
sighted through Monnington Church and the Scar Rock, Brobury, which
last can be seen central in the picture. I found the ancient track
still on the ley at the Scar, and alongside appeared to be an enclosed
camp with defences of a mild type, such as seem to be alongside many
other sighting points, as Longtown and Bridge Sollars Churches. Other
avenues on leys are at Trewyn (two), where the house, central with
the Scotch Fir avenue, has been proved to be on a burial mound, at
Llanvihangel Court, where tradition also asserts the house (central
again) to be on a burial mound; at Oakley Park, Ludlow (The Duchess
Walk); and at Longworth. A feature in most of these avenues is that,
as far as present roads or tracks go, they “lead to nowhere,” and the
discovery of the ley solves this puzzle. A striking instance can be
seen from the Castle Mound at New Radnor, from which Harpton Court and
Old Radnor Church are in line, and the eye looks up the centre of an
avenue of trees climbing to the church. That beautiful avenue (half its
beauty gone since two recent gales) with the ancient name Green Crise,
which lines a public road out of Hereford, is on a ley which comes down
the County College Road, over Putson Ford, and passes through Aconbury
Church.

One sure sign of a ley is a long straight strip of wood marked on the
map, as from Franchise-stone to Litley, and towards Breinton Church.

The word “park” had a meaning different to its present usage, but was
probably connected with woodland, and certainly with leys, which pass
through each of the innumerable Park Woods and Park Farms.

The Scotch Fir or Pine is the tree which seems most characteristic of
a ley, for a group of them are almost always (I notice) signs of a
sighting point, as at Constable’s Firs, Hampstead Heath.

At the present time it is impracticable to sight from point to point
(especially on water points) on account of intervening trees. It is
certain that for many centuries the sighting points were used, and
that trees did not then intervene. This throws a doubt on the usual
glib statement that ancient Britain was one dense forest. Perhaps the
increase of trees was a cause of the decay of the system.




                                CAMPS.


I find that every camp seems to have several leys over it, and that
these usually come over the earthworks, not the camp centre, as with
moats. Also that camps almost always show signs of part of their
earthworks being tumps. At Sutton Walls are four unmistakable tumps,
in one of which an interment was found, and in another (Plate XIV.)
the Club at its visit saw the bases of two masonry columns of Roman
construction, the use of which seemed a mystery. I feel certain they
were columns built by Roman surveyors for exact sighting.

Standing on the highest part of Dinedor Camp earthworks, the towers of
Hereford Cathedral and All Saints’ Church can be seen exactly in a line
to the stand point.

The camp plans in past Transactions show signs of tumps in most camps.
It is impossible to assume that leys (sighted between two mountains)
should in the scores of instances exactly fall upon the earthworks of
camps previously built on sites selected solely for defence. The leys
came first, and the present camp was then merely the site of two or
more tumps. There came a period of organised raids and war, and where
a group of tumps gave the first elements of defensive works, they were
joined by earthworks into a complete enclosure for defence. Here again
sighting settled the sites of camps. Hereford Castle Green with Hogg’s
Mount the only remaining sighting tump, others (as at the Russian
gun) being now levelled, is an example. Many groups of tumps, never
developed into camps but sufficiently near to be so, are to be found on
the map.

I found Caplar Camp to have so many leys over it as to seem the Clapham
Junction of ancient trackways in that district. It may be that in a few
cases of lofty camps (as Croft Ambury and Herefordshire Beacon) they
form terminals of sighting lines, but in almost all cases the leys pass
over them.




                               CHURCHES.


These--if ancient--seem to be invariably on (not merely alongside)
a ley, and in many cases are at the crossing of two leys, thus
appropriating the sighting point to a new use. A ley often passes
through a tump adjacent to the church, and a cross ley through both
church and tump. In other cases a mark stone site became the churchyard
cross, and a cross ley comes through both church and cross. In many
cases one of the leys went through the tower only, and it is possible
that tower and steeple were built to be used as sighting points,
although on the other hand a large church did in fact block the road. I
will make no surmises on these interesting points. The sighting system
may have been in decay or the tracks abandoned when the churches were
first built on the sighting points. I do not think it probable that
leys were made to provide sites for churches. In almost every old town
or village will be found examples of a church built on and blocking an
ancient road although new roads (as at Weobley) are often made on one
or both sides. I show examples of a number. Broad Street blocked by All
Saints, Offa Street (a striking example) with St. Peter’s Tower dead on
one end, and the Cathedral Tower dead on the other end. Other examples:
Ledbury, Wigmore, Shrewsbury (Fish Street), Kington, and Madley, where
tower, churchyard cross and village cross are on one ley, and tower,
nave, chancel, and a mark stone in the village on a lengthwise ley.

At Warwick a chapel is over a town gateway, and in Exeter an ancient
lane is also allowed to continue as a tunnel under the altar of a small
church, two curious instances of the right of way being continued and
the desire of the clergy to use the site also attained. Kenderchurch
is a striking instance of a church perched on the apex of a sighting
mound, and in other districts I can think of Bren Tor (Dartmoor),
Harrow, Churchdown (Gloucester), and the two St. Michael’s Mounts,
these last obviously terminals of leys, as is St. Tecla’s Chapel out
in the channel below Chepstow, the termination of the beach ley which
gives its name to Beachley Village.

In London St. Paul’s blocks the Watling Street and Ludgate Hill leys,
and St. Clement Danes, St. Mary le Strand, and St. Martin’s in the
Fields are all on another ley with subsidiary roads evolved on each
side of the churches.




                               CASTLES.


Every castle in this district has a ley passing over it, and originated
in a sighting tump, upon which the keep was afterwards built when some
lord selected this as a desirable site for a defensive home. If a large
tump, there were usually some excavations which were developed and
extended into real defensive works.

The word castle is applied to many tumps (as in Moccas Park), where no
building has ever existed, and to farms (as Castle Farm, Madley), where
there are signs of a tump, but merely a homestead round it.

Where the word castle is part of a genuine place name, there was a
sighting mound.




                            TRADERS’ ROADS.


Salt was an early necessity, and “Doomsday Book” records Herefordshire
Manors owning salt pans at “Wick,” namely Droitwich. The salt ley
for Hereford came from Droitwich through the White House, Suckley,
Whitwick Manor, Whitestone, Withington (site of present chapel), White
House, Tupsley, Hogg’s Mount, Hereford, and on to its terminal on
Mynydd Ferddin Hill through Whitfield mansion. Another salt ley passes
through Henwick and Rushwick (Worcester), over the Storridge pass
through Whitman’s Wood, and ultimately gets to White Castle (Mon.),
passing over the White Rocks at Garway. Similar leys pass through such
places as Saltmarshe Castle, Whitewell House, the two White Crosses,
Whitcliffe, Whiteway Head, the Wych pass over the Malverns. It is plain
what the “white” man carried.

  [Illustration:

   PLATE IX.

  MARK-STONES.

   1. Red Lion, Madley.

   2. Credenhill.

   3. Wye Street, Hereford.

   4. Bartonsham (see Plate VIII.).]

  [Illustration:

   PLATE X.

  TRANSITION OF MARK-STONE TO CROSS.

   1. Pedlars Cross, Llanigon.

   2. Wergins Stone.

   3. Churchyard Cross, Vowchurch (Inset, Hole in Shaft, Bitterley).

   4. Churchyard Cross, Capel-y-Fin.]

A knowledge of the ancient pottery in the Kiln Ground Wood at Whitney
enables me to show the meaning of the numerous red banks, barns, and
houses. A ley through this pottery is sighted on Newchurch Hill and
passes through Redborough, Red Lay (a cottage on main road this side of
Letton); the ley is then dead on two miles of the present high road as
far as the Portway, and passing through the Home Farm, Garnons (where
the ancient road exists), it ultimately reaches the little Red House,
the old Tannery House at The Friars, Hereford; the ley goes on through
Woolhope Church, but the small local potter had come to his limit and
the reds cease on this road. Another ley from this pottery runs through
the Red Gates and Eardisley Park.

What the “black” man carried is indicated by the name still given to
the smith who works in iron. Whoever carried to or from the local
forges, whether it was ore, charcoal, or iron, would be black.

The earliest trade (before metals were worked) must have been in
flints, and as a man who wanted such would not have gone across
Gloucestershire to the nearest chalk districts to fetch them, the
flint chippers, or knappers, would come on the road to sell them. The
sighting tumps called the Knap are common, and if I wanted to search
for flint flakes, I should go to the base of the Knaps, their earliest
market. Tin Hill, Tinker’s Hill, and Tinker’s Cross have a similar
meaning.




                          HEREFORD TRACKWAYS.


More than a score come through Hereford. There are sighting tumps at
Hogg’s Mount (Castle Green), Mouse Castle (also marked as Scots Hole),
Gallows Tump (Belmont Road), Holmer Golf Links, Holmer Lane (top of old
brick field), and an important one, Merryhill (in Haywood Forest), now
marked as Beachwood. There also have been (now demolished) sighting
tumps or points at Castle Hill, Palace Courtyard, Overbury (Aylestone
Hill), The Knoll, Tupsley. And remains of one for the Castle ferry is
on the line of earthwork bounding the Bishop’s Meadow.

A riverside track sighted over Hogg’s Mount and Holmer Lane Tump is
illustrated in Plate VIII.

I have found trackways through the sites of each of the ancient
churches. St. John’s Street extended passes exactly through the chancel
of the chapel of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem at Widemarsh.
Barrol Street through the site of St. Guthlac’s. In evening light a
trackway can be seen from the Castle Green terrace, running through
the large elm stump in the Bishop’s Meadow to certain railings on the
river bank, it runs by Vaga House, Quay Street, site of Blackfriars
Church, northwards to Brimfield Church, and southwards through a moat
this side of the rectory at Upper Bullingham. Other straight trackways
are visible through an orchard behind Kilburn (Aylestone Hill), on this
year’s show-ground near the Three Elms, through Litley orchard, and
descending the meadow on the north slope of Aylestone Hill to pass by
the Burcott Pool, and on to Tenbury.




                          TRADITIONAL WELLS.


The ley brings to mind or discovers many of these, for a straight track
went to or past all of them. There are Holy Wells at Dinedor, between
Blakemere and Preston, and under Herrock Hill. As children, living
close by, we used to call the Coldwell at Holmer the Holywell, and
found our way by stepping stones to the ancient stone built well now
destroyed. It was much like the Chamber well near the mill at Weobley.
The Golden Well near Dorstone is on a ley running through Arthur’s
Stone, the Gold Post (a mountain cot), and terminating in Pen-y-Beacon.
The two “golds” on one track indicate a trader’s way. Leys go straight
to, and not beyond, many wells in the Malvern ridge--St. Ann’s, Holy
Well, Walms (there is a Walmer Street named from a ley in Hereford
and a surname Walmsley), St. Pewtress, and one (whose name I do not
find) near the Chase Inn, above Colwall, which village itself is the
Cole’s--or magic man’s--well.

I have photographed in Cornwall the pointed “beehive” stone structure
covering a Holywell, surmounted by a cross; the whole obviously suited
for a sighting point. Here and there, as at the Flintshire Holywell, a
chapel has been built over the well. Our local example is at Marden,
where the well, in the west end of the church, central with the nave
(and the ley), is connected with the tradition of St. Ethelbert.

There is an ancient well in Goodrich Churchyard, with a trackway
obviously passing over it, but not through the church.




                            PREVIOUS DATA.


A number of observers have recorded confirmatory facts.

Mr. G. H. Piper (“Woolhope Club Transactions, 1882,” p. 176) says: “A
line drawn from the Skerrid-fawr (mountain) northwards to Arthur’s
Stone would pass over the camp and the southernmost point of the
Hatterill Hill, Old Castle, Longtown Castle, and Urishay and Snodhill
Castles.”

Mr. Thos. Codrington (“Roman Roads in Britain,” 1903) says: “Between
the extreme points there are many straight pieces not quite in the same
line, generally pointing to some landmark. There are several instances
where a barrow or tumulus was the landmark, the road passing round it
on nearing it. Silbury affords one example, and Brinklow, on the Foss,
another.”

Mr. James G. Wood (“Woolhope Club Transactions, 1910,” p. 146) says:
“The origin and purposes of these tumps associated with Roman roads
will well repay investigation. I have traced a line of such works
across South Monmouthshire and West Gloucestershire from Caerleon
through Caerwent into the Forest. All of these are so placed that each
is in sight of the next in either direction. Again, we find that such
roads were in many cases ranged or laid out in line with small camps or
such tumuli--being, in fact, surveying stations.”

The Rev. S. Baring-Gould (“Book of Dartmoor,” 1900) says: “The stone
row is almost invariably associated with cairns and kistvaens. They
do not always run parallel; they start from a cairn and end with a
blocking stone set across the line.”

The Rev. S. Bentley (“History of Bosbury,” 1891) says: “Under the cross
in the churchyard, at its removal to its present site in 1796, a huge
shapeless mass of rock weighing upwards of two tons was found. This
stone now lies in the churchyard close to the tower on the south side.”
Another writer refers to it as “this large unhewn mass of Silurian
rock.”

Mr. Hillaire Belloc (“The Old Road,” 1904), writing of the Pilgrim’s
Way, says: “Now on its way from Winchester to Canterbury the Old Road
passes, not in the mere proximity of, but right up against, thirteen
ruined or existing churches.”

Mr. Belloc also says: “The sacredness of wells is commingled all
through Christendom with that of altars”; and giving Continental
instances, also refers to the one under the altar at Winchester.




                             ROMAN ROADS.


The exact relation of Roman roads to the earlier leys is a matter for
future investigation, but our co-member Mr. Jack is on the right lines
when investigating the surface construction to find whether a road can
be called Roman. It is not easy to realise that many British roads were
as ancient to the Roman invaders as the Roman remains are to us.

My general impressions from observed facts are that the Roman surveyors
used the sighting system; that they utilized the old trackways,
imposing greater width and their far superior road surface and
foundations; also that working during the degeneration of the ley
system, they did not appreciate the long distance primary points, but
working on short distance hills and points their roads are not so
consistent and individual. I find evidence that they established their
stations on the original leys, and that these were then so numerous
as to form the boundaries of stations or towns, and thus decide their
polygonal shape. It is also probable that a great many Roman roads
of which portions remain were never completed, although the sighting
points of the original ley continue on the line.

The road from Aymestry to Mortimer’s Cross comes down to the Wye in the
cutting at Bridge Sollars.

The “Roman” straight road from Leintwardine through Paytoe and Wigmore
Moor (the subject of recent digging) continues as a ley through Lucton
and Kingsland Churches.

I consider the existing maps of Roman roads to have little value as
being based on the assumption that there were no straight sighted
roads before the Romans came, and that (quite illogically) such a road
could go round corners, and had to follow the tracks over which some
old writer had travelled. I find the so-called straight Roman roads,
as from Kenchester to Lugg Bridge, to be really on several slightly
diverging leys, three in this case.




                             PLACE NAMES.


The ley and its sighting points were earlier than homesteads, hamlets,
or towns, and as the latter evolved on the tracks, place names
naturally bear traces of their origin.

It is no reflection on philologists that, not knowing of the ley, they
have made misinterpretations, and have a huge mass of corrections
to make. In particular they will find a past neglect in translating
place names in the light of traders coming along the road and meeting
the buyers at settled points. The man who brought the long-coveted
gold ornaments might only come once a year, but to the women of the
community the Gold Hill, Gold Post, or Golden Cross (roads), where they
met him, or the Golden Valley, along which he came, would be likely to
take their names from his wares. There are two of each of the above
Gold place names in the county.

  [Illustration:

   PLATE XI.

  CHURCHYARD CROSS.

  Bitterley.]

  [Illustration:

   PLATE XII.

  TREE.

  Eastwood Oak, Tarrington.]

The notes which follow must be taken rather as suggestions than as
final conclusions.

The common suffix--ley--indicates a ley of the character denoted by
the first element in the name, and “meadow” is not, I think, the right
interpretation. The numerous Leys Hills are not likely to be so called
from meadows.

The suffix--ton originated by a mark stone on the ley becoming the
nucleus of a homestead, and perhaps later a town.

The suffix--bury clearly indicates a mound which was a sighting tump.
It is a strange development that these tumps were coveted both as
places to be buried in and to live on. Mrs. Gillespie (who lived at
Trewyn, Pandy, for 17 years) writes me: “I suppose you know that Trewyn
was built on a burial mound,” and goes on to describe the discovery of
a cist with human remains which they dug up under one of the rooms.
I had told her how Trewyn was on two leys (therefore on a sighting
point), one being down the avenue of ancient pine trees straight for
Alt-y-Ynis.

Barrow (another mound name) occurs at Cradley, Pembridge, and
Wheelbarrow Castle, Leominster; Canon Bannister shows that Coldborough
was formerly Colbarwe, and he also associates borough and bury as from
the same root. A variation is berrow as in Broomsberrow. Just as the
sighting stone--ton became the site of our modern town, so the mound
evolved into the borough.

Low--the universal name for the mound in Derbyshire--is not so common
here. But Wormlow Tump, Ludlow, Warslow, and Bradlow indicate sighting
points.

Bury is used alone as the name for a tump, as in the many Bury Farms,
or as at Ivington Bury. A farmer still calls the earth covered tump in
which he winters his roots a bury. Towns like Ledbury first grew round
a sighting mound.

“Broom” occurs with great persistence on leys, with its variations brom
and bram. Bromley and Bramley, Bromton and Bramton, Bromfield (where is
the Old Field with a number of tumuli), Broomsgreen, Broomsberrow, and
the many Broomy Hills are examples. It is not confined to one form of
sighting point, and I surmise (from a faint line of evidence) that a
component part of our modern broom was an essential working implement
of the skilled ley man, and was continued as the staff of the mediæval
pilgrim. Whether the plant broom was the original root word or a
derivative I cannot say.

Lady Lift (a hill-point mound) is on a ley with Lady Harbour Farm, and
the prefix Lady is applied to court, grove, ridge, oak, and meadow in
the county. The Lady Harbour of Hereford Cathedral is on one of the
leys which form Church Street, and had the name before any church was
built there. It might possibly indicate a woman’s shelter on the road.

The suffix--tree, probably originated in a single tree planted as a
sighting point, either as at “Cross of the Tree” in Deerfold Forest, or
to mark the apex of a natural hill as illustrated in Plate XII. Webtree
is on such a hill with two leys passing through it. Its name signifies
that it is the spot where the webbe or weaver met his buyers. He
travelled along the webbe-ley, and there are three Weobleys (formerly
Webbeley) in the county, at Weobley Ash, and Weobley Cross, also the
better known townlet. He also met others at a mark-stone now known as
Webton. The surnames Webb, Webber, and Webster still survive.

In the same way another first word element gave the place names (and
surnames from them) of Bosley (Cattle-ley), Boston, Bosbury, Boswell,
Bostock, and Boscastle. Again, Stanley, Stanwell, Stanton, Stanbury,
and Stanbatch. And I have shown how the white (salt) man gave the first
element to innumerable place names on his route. There is a Silver Tump
and a Brass Knoll in the Olchon Valley, both proved sighting tumps.

The names Bowley, Bowling Green (farm, also a quarry near Ewias
Harold), Bolitree, Bolstone, Bollingham, Bal Mawr, Balls Cross,
Ballgate, Bellgate, Bellimore, and Belmont, all seem akin to the
rounded outline of an inverted bowl, or to boils, bowels, and belly of
animal life, and indicate the rounded tump.

The house at Bolitree is built on a tump with signs of a moat, and as I
found a ley through Bollingham (house and chapel) I went there to find
the bol, and there it was, a fine tump with an old summerhouse on its
summit.

Gate in a place name (as in Hill Gate, Three Gates, Ballgate, England’s
Gate, Burley Gate, etc.) did not mean, as now, something which stopped
a way (that was called a lid-yatt), but the way itself. It is much the
same as the word pass. The same element (modified) is in such names as
Gatley, Gatsford, Yatton, Symonds Yat, Woodyatt’s Cross.

Lee Line and Timberline Wood are place names clearly describing leys.
There is a Linton and a Linley at Stanford Bishop--the mark stone and
the ley. I think that Lyonshall, Lynhales, Lion Farm, and Hobby Lyons
are variations.

Such names as Winslow, Preston Wynne, Winsley, and Winyard (Radnor
Forest) indicate the road by which wine was brought. Totnor,
Totteridge, Tothill, and Twt indicate (as Mr. J. G. Wood has pointed
out) tumps, and they are all sighting tumps on leys. Mr. Wood (who has
come very near discovering the ley) also--in Woolhope Transactions for
1919--connects Titterstone, Clee Hill (Plate I.) with the word Tot or
Toot. Tooting and Tottenham are London forms of the word. Rosemary
Topping (English Bicknor) is a much prettier name for a sighting tump.

Bur or Burl seems to be descriptive of some form of sighting point.
Leys pass through Burley, Burlton, Burton (many of this name), Burford,
and The Burcot; and there is a Burl Hill in Radnorshire.

Although a ley ran from peak to peak there must have been an earlier
termination to its useful part, or a still more restricted part used
by traders. Hence--in London--Finsbury; Capel-y-fin in the Black
Mountains; and Fine Street, near Letton, have probably the same
meaning, which, however, seems to be locally more often expressed by
the word end, as in New End (Canon Pyon), Red Wych End (Cowarne),
Nupend, etc.

As regards the place name element “broad” (also brad and bred), a ley
passes through Broad Green (Orleton), The Broad, north of Leominster,
Broadward, south of Leominster (dead on the main road at each of these
two), and on to Broadlands at Aylestone Hill, Hereford. It was the
road, not the place, which was broad, constructed for wheel traffic,
for which the previous pack-horse tracks were too narrow. Mr. Allan
Bright, of Barton Court, Colwall, wrote me, pointing out that a ley
from the Wych through his house to Ledbury Church, also ran through a
meadow of his called Broadley Meadow. Such names as Bradley, Bradlow,
Bradford, Broadmoor, Broad Oak, and Bredwardine are thus explained.

Probably most instances of the word elements, little and long, apply
to the roads which pass through the places. Hereford is (no doubt
correctly) said to mean “army road.” Little Hereford is not a small
edition of the town, but of the road. Litley is the small ley, Longley
is the long ley, and so with the stone, grove, land, and ford (there
have been two Longfords). Long in old spelling was often lange; and
little, lutel or luttel--these from Canon Bannister’s list. Hence come
the (places and surnames) Langstone, Langford, Langland, Langton,
Lutley, Luton. The two Leinthalls--Earles and Starkes--are seldom
called by these second names locally, but are Little Leinthall and
Long Leinthall respectively, the element leint (occurring also in
Leintwardine) being I surmise derived from ley. Little Leynthale, to
quote an old spelling, would be the meadow traversed by the short ley.




                       DISCOVERY BY PLACE NAME.


I have experienced this in several cases, and will detail one. A local
antiquarian (Mr. W. Pilley) always maintained that there had been
an ancient spring--the Bewell spring--close to Bewell House and the
Hereford Brewery within the City. When I lived there with my father
we knew nothing of it. But about a year ago the present owners in
sinking a new deep well and building a new engine house, uncovered the
following inscription cut in stone in the base of the brewery wall, but
covered by a rockery in my time:--

                         WELL, 71 FEET, 1724.

I had always felt that the derivation given for the place name Bewell
Street as Behind-the-wall Street was an error.

There is a hill on the Canon Pyon road called Bewley or Bewdley Pitch.
Solely on account of my surmise that the Bewley might lead to the
Bew-well, I tried a line on the map and found a ley exactly falling on
this “pitch” (or steep road) passing from the north through Bishops
Moat (west of Bishops Castle), Meer Oak, Bucknell Church, Street Court,
Stretford Churchyard, and Birley Churchyard, and exactly over the site
of the well. Southwards over Palace Ford, Dinedor Camp, Caradock, Picts
Cross, Hom Green Cross, Walford Church, Leys Hill, Speech House; there
being numerous confirmations in fragments of road.




                             THE LEY-MEN.


The fact of the ley, with its highly skilled technical methods, being
established, it must also be a fact that such work required skilled
men, carefully trained. Men of knowledge they would be, and therefore
men of power over the common people. And now comes surmise. Did they
make their craft a mystery to others as ages rolled by. Were they
a learned and priestly class, not admitted until completing a long
training--as Cæsar describes the Druids. Or did they--as Diodorus and
Strabo says of Druids--become also bards and soothsayers. Did they,
as the ley decayed, degenerate into the witches of the middle ages.
Folk-lore provides the witches with the power of riding through the air
on a broomstick, the power of overlooking, that of the evil eye. They
(in imagination) flew over the Broomy Hills and the Brom-leys. It may
be that the ancient sighting methods were condemned as sorcery by the
early Christian missionaries.

  [Illustration:

   PLATE XIII.

  TREES.

   1. A One-tree Hill, Llanvihangel-nant-Melan.

   2. Scotch-Fir (or Scots Pine) Avenue, Monnington (See Plate
   XVII.).]

  [Illustration:

   PLATE XIV.

  CAMPS.

   1. One of the Four Mounds, Sutton Walls.

   2. Herefordshire Beacon.]

Were they the laity or lay-men of Beowulf?

In later days our first English poet was one Layamon, and in his time
were men called Ley-cester, Leye, and Ley-land.

In the Oxford Dictionary is given the obsolete word cole as meaning
in the 16th century a false magician, a juggler, and cole-prophet (or
cold-prophet) with a similar meaning, and there is a cole-staff or
cowl-staff also mentioned, which, although then meaning a carrying
stick, was--I surmise--originally the working sighting staff of the
cole-man, who was the magician of the ley. The word still survives in
colporter, a walking seller of books, who carries his wares slung over
his shoulder on a stick.

We have in our district Coldman’s Hill, Coldstone Common, Coles Tump
(Orcop), and Coles Mountain (Presteign). In other parts of England are
Coley, Colbury, Colebatch, Colestock, Coleshill, Coleford, Coleham,
Colchester, and Coleridge, which last has an alternate name Coldridge,
confirming other instances of the intrusion of the d. I surmise Cold
Harbour (Kentchurch) to have been Cole Harbour.

Colmanswell in Ireland possesses to-day a “sacred” well, and this name,
together with our own ancient Colewelle in Herefordshire, now altered
to Colwall, is probably nearer the original root meaning than is the
case of the three Coldwells at Holmer, Kingston, and English Bicknor.

A Bishop’s name Colman is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and
Cole is also a common surname to-day.

There are other names for a ley-man indicated in the two Derbyshire
place names, Totmans Low and Laidmans Low, the Low being a sighting
mound.




                         HINTS TO LEY HUNTERS.


Keep to the discovery of lines through undoubted sighting points, as
artificial mounds (including castle keeps), moats and islands in ponds
or lakes. In practice churches can be treated as sighting points, but
in some cases a ley passes through a tump or well close to the church.
Avoid for a time the temptation of taking every bit of narrow straight
road and extending it into a ley. Scrap every ley you think you have
discovered if it does not pass through at least four undoubted sighting
points exclusive of roads.

You must use Government ordnance maps. One mile to the inch is the
working scale. Other maps of two or four miles to the inch are quite
useless, save for checking long leys.

The (B) “Popular edition, mounted and folded in covers for the pocket,”
is the most convenient for field work and is the cheapest, as it
contains over double the area of the older (C) 18 x 12 edition; but
I have found the latter (uncoloured, in flat sheets) necessary for
transferring leys from one map to the next on drawing boards in the
office.

Maps cut in sections are useless for this exact work.

About four drawing boards, a light 24-inch straight edge, a T square
for pinning down the maps accurately to line with the boards, a
moveable head T square to adjust to the angle of the ley, so as to
transfer to the next map, and a box of the glass headed pins used by
photographers (in addition to the usual drawing pins) are the minimum
essentials for real work. A sighting compass for field work used in
conjunction with a special divided quadrant on the moveable head of
square are aids I have found valuable.

Remember that the entire course of a ley can be found from two
undoubted sighting points on it if marked on the map. Therefore stick a
glass headed pin in these two points, apply the straight edge, and rule
the line, pencil it at first, ink afterwards.

When you get a “good ley” on the map, go over it in the field, and
fragments and traces of the trackways will be found, always in straight
lines, once seen recognised with greater ease in future.

Where close detail is required, as in villages and towns, the 1´´scale
is far too small, and the 6´´ scale is necessary. The angle of the ley
is transferred to it from the 1´´ map with the aid of the moveable head
square. Maps must be pinned square on the board by the T square passing
through identical degree marks on the edges, latitude for leys running
E. and W., but longitude for leys N. and S. The edges of the maps are
not truly in line with the degree lines, and must not be the guide.

Ley hunting gives a new zest to field rambles, and the knowledge of the
straight ley provides new eyes to an eager observer.

I have a mental vision of a Scout Master of the future, out ley hunting
with the elder boys of his troup, instructing them as they look out
from a high sighting point. “Now, Harold! if you only take that pole
out of your eye, you will see better to pick out that distant moat that
Cyril has in his eye. He’s got it, right enough, just a speck of light
from the ring of water round the island. When I told you to use your
pole as a sighting staff, I didn’t tell you to see nothing else. Now
we have found the ley, I think we shall see a bit of the old track in
that far grassy field this side the moat; it’s narrow and straight, and
there are many who never find it because they look for a broad way like
our present wheel tracks.”




                              A FEW LEYS.

          (_Additional to others detailed in text and maps_).


Colva Hill to Birdlip Hill, via Parton Cross, Breinton Camp and Ford,
Red Hill, Holme Lacy House, Caplar Camp, Yatton Church, Moat and Camp
beyond Newent, and dead on “Ermin Street” for five miles.

Gwaun Ceste Hill to Brimpsfield Castle, via Michaelchurch, Eaton Camp,
Perry Hill, Dinedor Cross, Tump, Brockhampton Old Church, Cross in
Hand, Upton Court, The Conigree, Rudford Church, Gloucester Cathedral,
Castle Hill, Witcombe Park, and Blacklains.

Gwaun Ceste Hill to West Tump, via Colva Church, Brilley Green, The
Scar Rock (Brobury), down Monnington Walks (central), Monnington
Church, The Chantry, Perrystone, Mullhampton, Anthony’s Cross,
Tibberton Court, Llanthony (Glos.) Abbey, and dead on a Gloucester
street.

Little Mountain (Westbrook) to St. Ann’s Well and Priory Church,
Malvern, via Arthur’s Stone, Cross End, Moccas Church, Monnington
Church, Credenhill (old) Court, Pipe and Lyde Church, and Beacon Hill.

Pen-y-Beacon to North Hill, Malvern, via Sugwas Park, Ten Houses Pond
(Plate VI.), Burcot Pool, White Stone Chapel, Shucknell Hill, Stretton
Grandison Church, Moat at Birchend, and Mathon Church.

Croft Ambury to Y-Fan-Drongarth (2,410 peak in Brecon Beacon group),
via Hill Barn, Easthampton, Milton House, Court of Noke, Elsdon,
Bollingham Chapel Tump, Clyro Church, Llowes Church, Bryn-Rhydd, and
Slwch Camp, Brecon.

Bailey Hill (Knighton) to May Hill (Longhope), via The Warden,
Presteign, Golf Course Tump, Holmer, Holmer House, Holmer Lane Tump,
Venn’s Lane, The Prospect and Tupsley Hospital Road, Main Street and
Church, Fownhope, Caplar Camp, How Caple Church, Old Gore Cross, and
Linton Church.




                               ENDWORD.


I close up my patchwork pages for this booklet, and a tired brain finds
relief in two memories. The one of the day, just on half a century ago,
when, a lad on a trader’s route for my father’s brewery, I pulled up my
horse to look with wonder at the Four Stones, standing like sentinels
in a field corner. Later in the same day, the steep slope of the
Radnor Forest surmounted, came the first view of Castle Tomen at the
summit of the Forest road, with its background of Wye and Irfon Valley
(Breconshire) Mountains. And the note of unsatisfied wonder struck
that day has lingered through nearly fifty years’ unusually intimate
knowledge of our beautiful West Country border land, and I know now
that my sub-conscious self had prepared the ground and worked at the
problem I now see solved.

The second memory is the vivid one of the rush of revelations in the
gorgeous year of sunshine just finished. And I can scarcely realize
that half the year had gone, the clear smoke-free distances of early
summer a thing of the past, and midsummer day over, before I got the
first clue. Once started, I found no halt in the sequence of new facts
revealed by active search on the tracks.

It is a mere framework for a new knowledge that I offer, but I know
that it has solid foundations, and that good wholesome field work by
others--for it may not be granted to me to do very much more--will fill
in many gaps. That is why I write.

POSTSCRIPT. In some districts--as Salisbury Plain and the
Yorkshire Wolds--there are groups of adjacent barrows so numerous that
it is probable that most of them were built as burial mounds only, not
sighting mounds. This is not the case in the district investigated.

  [Illustration:

   PLATE XV.

  CHURCH.

  Ledbury, the Spire sighted up Church Lane.]

  [Illustration:

   PLATE XVI.

  CASTLE.

  Wigmore Castle, showing the sighting mound.]

  [Illustration:

   PLATE XVII.

  CASTLE.

  Brampton Bryan Castle with Coxall Knoll on right.]

  [Illustration:

   PLATE XVIII.

  HOUSE IN MOAT.

  Gillow.]

  [Illustration:

   PLATE XIX.

  MAP OF TWO LEYS (A. & B.) AND PARTS OF C. & D. SEE CONTENTS TABLE

  (Based upon the Ordnance Survey with the sanction of the Controller
   of H.M. Stationery Office).]

  [Illustration:

   PLATE XX.

  MAP OF EIGHT LEYS THROUGH CAPEL-Y-TAIR-YWEN, HAY. SEE CONTENTS TABLE

  (Based upon the Ordnance Survey with the sanction of the Controller
   of H.M. Stationery Office).]




                                INDEX.

_Most of the Places indexed are in Herefordshire; those in adjoining
counties are, if necessary, indicated by the initial of the county (as
R. for Radnor) following the name._


    Abdon Burf (S.), 18

    Aberllynfi-Gaer (B.), 6

    Aconbury Church, 20

    Almeley Batch Twt, 6

    Almeley Woonton, 19

    Altars, 25

    Alt-y-ynis, 27

    Anthony’s Cross (G.), 33

    Arthur’s Stone, 6, 14, 24, 25, 33

    Assemblies, 10, 14

    Avenues (trees), 5, 20

    Avenues of Pines, 27

    Aylestone Hill, 24

    Aymestrey, 26


    Bach Hill (R.), 18

    Backbury, 19

    Badesley Clinton (Warwick.), 16

    Bailey Hill (R.), 34

    Baldwin (Archbishop), 17

    Bal-Mawr (B.), Balls Cross, Ballgate, 5, 28

    Bannister, Rev. A. J., 27, 30

    Baring-Gould, Rev. S., 25

    Barrow, 10, 27

    Barton Court, 29

    Bartonsham Farm, 5, 17

    Bassam, 5, 17

    Batch, 6, 10

    Beachley (G.), 22

    Beachwood Mound, 23

    Beacon Hill, 33

    Bellgate, Bellimore, Belmont, 28

    Belloc, Hillaire, 25

    Belmont, 16, 18

    Bentley, Rev. S., 25

    Beowulf, 31

    Bewell Spring, 30

    Bewley or Bewdley, 30

    Bible parallels, 33

    Bicknor Walks (G.), 12

    Birchend Moat, 33

    Birdlip Hill (G.), 33

    Birley Church, 30

    Birley Hill, 6

    Bitterley Cross (S.), 5

    Bitterley (S.), 4, 18

    Bishop’s Moat (S.), 30

    Black Darren, 4

    Black Hill, Olchon, 6

    Blackfriars, Hereford, 24

    Blacklains (G.), 33

    Black Mountains, 5, 17

    Black Traders road, 23

    Blackwardine, 9

    Bobblestock Hill, 19

    Bolitree, Bolstone, Bollingham, 28

    Bollingham, 17, 33

    Borough, 27

    Bosbury, Boston, Bosley, 28

    Bosbury Cross, 25

    Boswell (Staff.), Bostock (Staff.), Boscastle (Cornwall), 28

    Bowley Bowling Green, 19, 28

    Bowley Town, 14

    Boy Scouting, 33

    Bradley, Bradlow, 27, 29

    Bramley, 27

    Brampton Bryan, 6

    Bramton, 27

    Brass Knoll, 28

    Bredwardine, 29

    Breinton, 20, 33

    Bren Tor (Devon), 22

    Bridge Sollars, 16, 20, 26

    Brilley Green, 33

    Brinsop, 16

    Brimpsfield Castle (G.), 33

    Brinklow (Wilts.), 25

    Brimfield, 24

    Broad Green, 29

    Broad (The), 9, 29

    Broadlands, Broadley, Broadward, 29

    Brobury Scar, 5, 6, 19, 33

    Brockhampton Church, 33

    Bromton, 27

    Bromfield, 27

    Bromley (Kent), 27

    Broom, 27, 28

    Broomsgreen (G.), 27

    Broomsberrow (G.), 27

    Broomstick, 31

    Broomy Hill, 27, 31

    Brown Clee (S.), 18

    Bryn-y-Maen (R.), 18

    Bryn-Rhydd (R.), 33

    Bucknell Church (S.), 30

    Bullingham, 24

    Burcot Pool, 16, 24, 33

    Bury, 10

    Burial Mound, 14, 20, 27

    Bur, Burton, Burford, Burcot, 29

    Burl, Burley, Burlton, 29

    Burley Gate, 28

    Bury, 27

    Bush Bank, 17

    Byford Ford, 6


    Caerleon (M.), 25

    Caerwent (M.), 25

    Cairn, 10

    Camps--6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 20, 21, 22, 25, 33, 34

    Canterbury, 13, 25

    Capel-y-fin (B.), 5, 17, 18, 29

    Capel-y-tair-ywen (B.), 6

    Caplar Camp, 21, 33, 34

    Caradock, 30

    Castles--4, 6, 10, 11, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 28, 31, 33

    Castle Hill (Glos.), 33

    Castle Hill (Hereford), 14, 23

    Castle Farms, 22

    Castle Tumps, 6

    Castle Tomen, 4, 34

    Causeways, 4, 5, 13, 16, 24

    Chamber Well, 24

    Chantry, Perrystone, 33

    Christian Era, 11

    Churchdown (G.), 22

    Churches--6, 7, 11, 12, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 33,
      34

    Cist, 27

    Clee Hill (S.), 4, 18

    Clifford, 6

    Clyro Church (R.), 33

    Codrington, Thos., 15, 25

    Colchester, Coleham, Coleridge, 31

    Coldborough, 27

    Cold Harbour, Coldridge, 31

    Coldman’s Hill, Coldstone, 31

    Coldwell, 24, 31

    Cole, Coleman, 24, 31

    Cole-prophet, Cold-prophet, 31

    Cole-staff, 31

    Coleshill, Colestock, Coleford, 31

    Colewelle, Colmanswell, 31

    Coles Tump, Coles Mountain, 31

    Coley, Colebury, Colebatch, 31

    Colva Church (R.), 33

    Colporter, 31

    Colva Hill (R.), 32

    Colwall, 24, 31

    Commerce, 10

    Concrete in Causeways, 4

    Conigree (G.), 33

    Constable’s Firs, 20

    Coronation Stone, 17

    Coxall Knoll, 6

    Court of Noke, 33

    Craft of the Ley-men, 30

    Cradley, 27

    Credenhill, 5, 17, 33

    Croft Ambury, 9, 21, 33

    Croft Lane, 9

    Crosses, 5, 17

    Cross Ash (M.), 19

    Cross Colloe, 19

    Cross End Farm, 6, 33

    Cross in Hand, 14, 33

    Cross Oak (S.), 19

    Cross Roads, 11, 13

    Cross of the Tree, 19, 28

    Cruger Castle (R.), 4

    Cullis, 15

    Cusop, 12

    Cuttings, 15


    D, intrusion of letter, 27

    Dancing in Circle, 14

    Dartmoor, 18, 25

    Deerfold Forest, 28

    Duchess Walk (S.), 20

    Dial Carreg (M.), 18

    Dial Post (W.), 18

    Didley, 4, 14

    Dinedor Camp, 12, 21, 30

    Dinedor Cross, 33

    Dinedor Holy Well, 24

    Dolmen, 14

    Domestic Camp, 20

    Doomsday Book, 22

    Dorstone Castle Tump, 6

    Droitwich (W.), 22

    Druids, 31


    Eardisland, 14

    Eardisley Park, 23

    Earthworks, 10, 11, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 23

    Eastwood Oak, 5, 19

    Easthampton, 33

    Eaton Bishop Camp, 33

    Eccles Green, 18

    Elsdon, 33

    Enclosures, 9

    England’s Gate, 28

    Ermin Street (G.), 33

    Exeter, church over ley, 22

    Evolution of Moats, 4, 10, 15

    Evolution of Mounds, 4, 14

    Evolution of Crosses, 5, 11


    Felin-fach Moat (B.), 6

    Ferries, 12, 18, 23

    Field Work, 32, 33, 34

    Fine Street and Finsbury, 29

    Flansford, 15

    Flint Age, 10

    Flint Flakes, 9

    Flint Traders road, 23

    Folly, The (R.), 18

    Folk-mote, 14

    Fords--4, 5, 6, 12, 13, 15, 17, 29, 30, 33

    Forest, 20, 25

    Foss (Glos. and Wilts.), 25

    Four Stones (R.), 4, 18, 34

    Fownhope, 34

    Franchise-stone, 20

    Froom’s Hill, 17


    Gallows Tump, 23

    Garn, 10

    Garnons, 23

    Garron River, 4

    Gate, 28

    Gatley, 15, 28

    Gatsford, 28

    Gillespie, Mrs., 27

    Gillow, 6, 16

    Giraldus, 4, 17

    Glade, 12

    Gladestree (R.), 12

    Glascwm Hill (R.), 6

    Gloucester, 33

    Golden Cross, 27

    Golden Well, 24

    Gold Hill, 27

    Gold Post, 24, 27

    Gold Traders road, 24, 27

    Golden Valley, 27

    Goodrich, 24

    Gospel Oaks, 11, 19

    Great Oak, 19

    Green Crise, 20

    Grosmont (M.), 17

    Grove, 19

    Gwaun ceste Hill (R.), 33


    Hampstead Heath (Mid.), 20

    Hargest Ridge, 16

    Harrow (Mid.), 22

    Harpton Court (R.), 20

    Hatterill Hill, 25

    Hay Tump, 6

    Haywood Forest, 23

    Hell Moat, Sarnesfield, 6

    Hentland Cross, 17

    Henwick, 23

    Hereford, 5, 20, 23, 29

    ---- All Saints, 12, 21, 22

    ---- Barrol Street, 24

    ---- Bishop’s Meadow, 23

    ---- Broad Street, 22

    ---- Chapel of Hospitallers, 24

    ---- Cathedral, 4, 12, 16, 21, 22

    ---- Castle Green, 21, 23

    ---- Castle Hill, 17, 23

    ---- Church Street, 28

    ---- Harley Court, 16

    ---- The Knoll, 23

    ---- Offa Street, 12, 22

    ---- Overbury, 23

    ---- Palace, 23

    ---- Prospect, 34

    ---- St. John Street, 24

    ---- St. Peter’s, 22

    ---- Quay Street, 24

    ---- Venn’s Lane, 34

    ---- Wye Street, 17

    Herefordshire Beacon, 6, 21

    Herrock Hill, Holy Well, 24

    High Cullis, 15

    Hill Barn, 33

    Hill Gate, 28

    Hill-tracks, 7

    Hobby Lyons, 29

    Hoggs Mount, 5, 21, 22, 23, 24

    Holme Lacy House, 33

    Holmer, 5, 6, 16, 19, 24, 33, 34

    Holmer Tumps, 5, 23, 24, 34

    Hom Green Cross, 30

    Homesteads, 4, 11, 22, 26, 27

    Holy Wells, 6, 24

    Hope-under-Dinmore, 18

    Houghton Mound, 4

    How Caple Church, 34

    Hunderton, 17

    Hungerstone, 14, 15

    Hungerford (Mid.), 15


    Implements for mapping, 32

    Ingestone, 5, 13

    Iron, 16, 23

    Irfon Valley (B.), 34

    Island on moat, 15, 16

    Ivington Bury, 27


    Jack, G. H., 26


    Kenchester, 18, 19, 26

    Kenderchurch, 22

    Kiln Ground Wood, 23

    King’s Acre Elm, 19

    Kingsland Church, 26

    Kington Church, 22

    Kistvaens, 25

    Knap, 10, 23

    Knoll, 10, 23


    Lady Harbour, 28

    Ladylift--court, grove, meadow, 19, 28

    Laidmans Low, 31

    Laity, lay-men, 31

    Lakes, 15, 32

    Lane, 12

    Lay _see_ Ley

    Layamon, 31

    Laynes Farm (G.), 13

    Laysters Pole, 19

    Ledbury, 6, 16, 22, 27, 29

    Lee Line, 29

    Leintwardine, 26, 30

    Leinthall, 29

    Lemore, 4

    Letton Lakes, 16

    Leys, 3 to 34

    Leycester, 31

    Ley Farms, 12

    Leys Hill (G.), 27, 30

    Ley hunting--9, 11, 30, 31, 32, 33

    Ley-men, 10, 12, 14, 15, 30, 31, 33

    Leys, route of--6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30,
      33, 34

    Lidyatt, 28

    Linton, 29, 34

    Linley, 29

    Lion Farm, 29

    Litley, 17, 20, 24, 29

    Little Hereford, 29

    Little Mountain (R.), 6

    ---- (Westbrook), 33

    Llanelieu Church (B.), 6

    Llanigon (B.), 5

    Llanigon Mound (B.), 6

    Llansaintfraed-in-Elvel (B.), 18

    Llanthony (Mon.), 5

    Llanthony (Glos.), 33

    Llanvihangel Court (M.), 20

    Llanvihangel Crucorney (M.), 4, 15

    Llanvihangel-nant-Melan (M.), 18

    Llowes Church (R.), 33

    Longtown, 4, 5, 13, 15, 20, 25

    Longford, 30

    Longworth, 20

    Low, 10, 27, 31

    Lucton Church, 26

    Ludgate Hill, London, 22

    Ludlow (S.), 27

    Lugg Bridge, 26

    Lyde Cross Tree, 19

    Lyepole, 19

    Lyonshall, Lynhales, 29


    Mackay, J. C., 18

    Madley, 5, 17, 22

    Maescoch, 6

    Magna, 18

    Magician, 31

    Mainstone Court, 12

    Malvern Hills, 6, 12, 15, 23, 24

    Malvern Priory Church, 6, 33

    Marden Church, 24

    Mark Stones--5, 10, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23, 24

    Marstow, 4, 15

    Mathon Church, 33

    May Hill (G.), 34

    Maypole, 19

    Meer Oak (S.), 30

    Menhirs, 5, 17

    Merbach, 6

    Merry Hill, 14, 23

    Michaelchurch Escley, 6, 33

    Milton, 33

    Moats--4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 24, 33

    Moccas, 6, 22, 33

    Monnington Church, 6, 33

    Monnington Walks, 5, 6, 19, 33

    Monnow, 4, 13

    Moreton-on-Lugg, 19

    Mortimer’s Cross, 26

    Mote and Moat, 33

    Mouse Castle, Hay, 6

    Mouse Castle, Hereford, 23

    Mounds--4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26,
      27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34

    Mound--evolution of, 14

    Mound (various names for), 10

    Mountain Tracks, 5, 12

    Mullhampton, 33

    Mynydd-Brith Tump, 6

    Mynydd Ferddin Hill (B.), 23


    Neolithic Age, 10, 13

    Newchurch Hill (R.), 23

    New End, 29

    New Radnor Castle (R.), 20

    North Hill Malvern, 33

    Notches--sighting, 4, 15

    Nupend, 29


    Oakley Park (S.), 20

    Oaks, 5, 11, 19

    Olchon, 5, 12, 13, 28

    Oldcastle, 12, 25

    Old Gore Cross, 34

    Old Radnor Church, 20

    One Tree Hill, 5, 19

    Ordnance Maps, 11, 32

    Over Ross, 19


    Pains Castle Mound (R.), 6

    Palmer’s Court, 6

    Palace Ford, Hereford, 30

    Parallel Roads, 12

    Parks, 20

    Park Hall (S.), 4

    Partricio (M.), 17

    Parton Cross, 33

    Paytoe, 26

    Pedlar’s Cross, 5, 17

    Pen-y-Beacon, 4, 6, 24, 33

    Perry Hill, 33

    Perrystone, 33

    Philology, 26

    Picts Cross, 30

    Pilgrim’s Way, Kent, 13, 25

    Pilgrim’s Staff, 28

    Pine (Scotch or Scots), 20

    Piper, G. H., 25

    Pipe and Lyde Church, 33

    Ponds, 4, 5, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 32

    Portcullis, 15

    Pottery, Ancient, 5, 6, 23

    Precipice Walk, 12

    Preston-on-Wye Church, 6

    Preston Wynne, 15, 29

    Primary Peaks, 10

    Priory Wood, Clifford, 6

    Putson Ford, 20


    Queen’s Stone, 17


    Radnor Forest, 4, 34

    Redborough (R.), 23

    Red Gates, 23

    Red Hill, 33

    Red House, 23

    Red Ley, 12, 23

    Red Lion, 5, 17

    Red Pottery, 5, 6, 16

    Red Traders road, 5, 6, 23

    Red Wych End, 29

    Redley, 12

    Rhiw Wen, 17

    Rhiw, 5

    Rhos-goch Castle Tump (R.), 6

    Ridge-ways, 7

    Risbury Camp, 9

    Roman Roads, 9, 10, 13, 16, 25, 26

    Roman Stations, 9, 18, 26

    Roman Surveyors, 15, 18, 20, 21, 26

    Roofing Tile-stones, 5

    Rosemary Topping (G.), 29

    Ross, 19

    Rudford Church (G.), 33

    Rushwick (W.), 23


    Salt, 22

    Saltmarshe Castle, 23

    Saltways, 9, 22, 23

    Sarnesfield Moat, 6

    Scotch (or Scots) Fir, 5, 19, 20

    Scots Hole, 23

    Shelwick, 14

    Shrewsbury, 22

    Shucknell Hill, 6, 33

    Sighting Columns, 21

    Sighting Cuttings, 4, 15

    Sighting Methods, 9 to 34

    Sights, rifle, 9

    Sighting Stones, 4, 5, 6, 11, 17, 18, 21

    Silbury (Wilts.), 25

    Silver Tump, 28

    Sites and Sighting--11, 14, 16, 21, 22, 24

    Skirrid (M.), 4, 25

    Slwch Camp (B.), 33

    Snodhill Castle, 25

    Soothsayers, 31

    Speech House (G.), 30

    St. Ann’s Well (W.), 6, 24, 33

    St. Clement Danes, London, 22

    St. Ethelbert, 24

    St. Guthlac Church, 24

    St. Ishaw’s Well (M.), 17

    St. Martin’s in the Fields, 22

    St. Mary le Strand, 22

    St. Michael’s Mount, 22

    St. Paul’s Cathedral, 22

    St. Pewtress Well, 24

    St. Tecla’s Chapel (G.), 22

    Stanbatch, Stanbury, 28

    Stanton, Stanley, Stanwell, 28

    Stock, 14, 19

    Stoke Prior, 18

    Storridge, 23

    Stone Rows, 25

    Street Court, 30

    Stretford Church, 30

    Stretton Grandison, 9, 33

    Suffix, 27

    Sugwas Park, 33

    Surveyors, early, 14

    Surveyors, ley-men, 30

    Surveyors, Roman, 15, 21

    Sutton Lakes, 16

    Sutton Walls, 6, 18, 20

    Symonds Yat, 28


    Talgarth Church (B.), 6

    Tan House, 13

    Tarrington, 5

    Tenbury (W.), 24

    Ten Houses, 4

    Terminal Hills, 10, 11, 21

    Three Elms, 19, 24

    Three Gates, 28

    Thruxton, 15

    Timber Line Wood, 29

    Tibberton Court (G.), 33

    Tin Hill, 23

    Tin Traders road, 23

    Tinkers Hill and Cross (W.), 23

    Titterstone Clee Hill (S.), 4

    Tomen, 4, 10

    Totnor, Tothill, Toot, 29

    Totmans Low (Derby), 31

    Totteridge, Tottenham, 29

    Traders’ roads--9, 10, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29

    Trees, 5, 10, 12, 19, 20

    Tre-fedw Mound (M.), 4, 14

    Trewyn House (M.), 20, 27

    Trewyn Camp (M.), 4, 15

    Triangular Woods, 12

    Tumps--6, 10, 12, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 31, 33, 34

    Tumpa (B.), 6

    Tumpy Lakes, 16

    Tumpey Ley, 12

    Tumulus, 10

    Tupsley, 34

    Turnaston, 17

    Turrett Tump, 6

    Twt, Tooting, 10, 29


    Upperton, 18

    Upton (Bishop) Court, 33

    Urishay Castle, 25


    Vowchurch Cross, 5, 17


    Walmer Street, 24

    Walmsley, 24

    Walm’s Well, 24

    Walford Church, 30

    Walton (R.), 18

    Walsopthorne, 6

    Warden The (R.), 34

    Warslow, 27

    Warwick, Chapel over ley, 22

    Water Gate (Inigo Jones’), 15

    Watling Street, London, 22

    Webtree, 28

    Webton, 28

    Wellington, 19

    Wells--6, 10, 11, 24, 25, 28, 30, 31, 33

    Weobley, 6, 22, 24

    Weobley, Ash and Cross, 28

    Wergin’s Stone, 5, 17, 18

    Wheelbarrow Castle, 27

    Whitcliffe, 23

    Whitfield, 23

    Whitney, pottery at, 5, 6, 23

    Whitman’s Wood, 23

    Whitwick Manor, 22

    Whitecastle (M.), 23

    White Cross, 23

    White House, 22

    White Rocks, 23

    White Stone, 17, 22, 33

    White Traders’ road, 23

    Whiteway Head, 23

    Whitewell House, 23

    Whetstone, 16

    Wick (W.), 22

    Widemarsh, 24

    Wigmore, 6, 22, 26

    Wilton Castle, 19

    Winchester, 25

    Wind’s Point, 6

    Winforton, 19

    Winslow, Winsley, Winyard, 29

    Witcombe Park (G.), 33

    Witches, 31

    Withington, 15

    Withington Lakes, 16

    Wood, Jas. G., 25, 29

    Woodyatts Cross, 28

    Woolhope Church, 23

    Wormelow Tump, 27

    Worsell, 12

    Wyaston Leys, 12

    Wych, 14, 23, 29

    Wye, 26, 34

    Wye Street, 5


    Yarkhill, 16

    Y-Fan-Drongarth (B.), 33

    Yarpole, 19

    Yat, 28

    Yatton, 28, 33




                           ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.


Six of the photographs are by Mr. W. M. McKaig, helper in many miles of
ley-hunting.

This page is King 8vo. in the Ideal series of paper sizes, wherein
octavo and quarto have the same proportion, and three master sizes give
a full series of uniform shape.

The letterpress printed by the “Hereford Times,” Ltd., of Hereford.

The half-tone blocks by Messrs. Emery Walker, Ltd., London, except six
kindly lent by the Woolhope Club.

The illustrations and maps printed by Messrs. Ebenezer Baylis,
Worcester.

The two-colour title by Mr. W. E. Henner, Hereford.


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