Early British Trackways, Moats, Mounds, Camps and Sites. By Alfred Watkins. (Hereford: Watkins Meter Co.; and Simpkin, Marshall, 4s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Watkins thinks that he has found, in Herefordshire, that pre-Roman trackways “were in straight lines marked out by experts on a sighting system” and that the sighting lines—which, he arbitrarily assumes, were called “leys”—can be identified by place-names, ancient monuments, cross-roads, and so forth. Mr. Watkins gives a large number of very attractive photographs to prove his case, including one of a lane at Ledbury that gives a view of the church-tower. We must confess to finding this photographic evidence irrelevant, while the author’s etymological heresies weaken his argument. He suggests, for instance, that the first part of Finsbury is the Latin finis, end, which is incredible.
Source info: Cuttings agency.