In “Early British Trackways” (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.), Mr. Watkins suggests that the ancient earthworks we find about the country, the rough stones whose origin is a mystery, many of the ponds, and other traces of ancient man, are actually the “sighting points” by which he kept on a straight line of march:
“Presume a primitive people wanting a few necessities 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 was by sighting, and accordingly all these early trackways were straight, and laid in much the same way that a marksman gets the back and fore sights of his rifle in line with the target. …
“Such sighting lines were, in earlier examples, from natural mountain peak to mountain peak. … Such a sighting line (or ley) would be useless unless some further marking points were made, easily to be seen 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 These secondary, and artificial, sighting points still remain in many cases, either as originally made, or modified to other uses, and a large number are marked on maps and are the basis of my discovery.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. … Earth sighting points were chiefly on higher ground, and now bear the name of tump, tumulus, mound, tiottwt (EBT p. 10), 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.”
Source info: MS note by AW “Whitby Gazette”.
See comment to cutting 24b.