The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-02-02
APREHISTORIC ROAD
THE OLDEST MEMORIAL OF HUMAN
ACTION IN ENGLAND.
oder ~ Far Than the Ro.aapA Z,
the Ancient Winchester-Canterb
Highway, which Counts Its Age b.
ThOusond0 Of Yeafs.

There runs from Winchester to Can
| terbury q prehistoric track which ia
probably the oldest memorial of mems
action in England. 1t is certainly old
er than the ROmans-that is, it is Ger
tainly 1000 years old, and how much
older it may be than that we have no
way of telling. but we do know that
F, Winchester and Canterbury must have
| been the two great centers Of the na-
| tional life in the old barbarian times
! before the Romans came, and We may
| therefore suppose without too much
| temerity that this road is almost CO.
eyal with the existence of organized
human life in Great Britain.
| Two years ago l explored this road
thoroughly. The whole distance is
about 12O miles, and Of that one may
| say that antiQuarians had discovered
/ before my friends and understood IFS
| thorough exploration. about three-QIar-
| ters. OF the remaining quarter some
part was doubtful and the rest I'M
known, but this unknown part did not
| make one continuous stretch. 1t was
! pieced in, as it were, along the length
of the way, bit here and bit there
Thus one would have ten or fifteen
! miles along which the old British road
corresponded with the modern high
way: then would come perhaps two
miles of doubtful lane. the history OF
which had to be read and the direction
noted before one could be certain that
| it was really part Of the old road; then
after that would come. say. half mile
! of pure waste heath or marsh or for
est, in which nothing but a most care
| full examination, the records OF old
| maps, the evidence Of place names. and
i so forth, helped one to identify the
track Of the British way; then the
highway would appear again, coincid-
Ing with the old trail, and SO forth,
long known or obvious bits coming In
between short doubtful or unknown
4; bits, until after infinite pains we built
up the whole Of the original track with
| the doubtful exception Of few hun
dred yards.
It may interest my readers to know
what causes chiefly preserved this
| road and what have tended to its Oblt-
Grafton.
The causes which preserved 1t were
three. In the first place, it ran for the
main part along the chalk hills which
! are known as the North downs, just
above the level Of cultivation, and
chalk is an excellent preservative for
| q road of this kind. 1t takes the i'm
preston of passing traffic, the weight
| of which makes sort Of platform
! along the hillside. II is not easy to
cultivate and people do not build upon
its heights. Moreover, chalk does not
| wash away, so that such a road, once
formed, would remain for centuries.
The second cause which preserved
] the road was the system of turnpike
! which was introduced, think, about
200 years ago and lasted until our own
time. Men naturally tried to avoid the
| turnpike II they were on horseback or
II they were drovers, and they would
! turn of the good turnpike roads Of the
valley, where they had to pay at every
gate, and 60 along the old free road
| above the hills.
tomb of St Thomas at Canterbury.
| which sprang up about 700 years ago,
powerfully helped the survival of the
road. Winchester was beginning to
fall into decay when this pilgrimage
arose, and Canterbury was no longer
| very important town, but when thou
sands Of men had occasion to go from
the west Of England to Canterbury On
q pilgrimage Winchester became the
natural meeting place, and the road
from Winchester to Canterbury once
again grew in importance. Churches
and villages spraLg up along 1t, tradl'
tons and legends began to cling u It
and one way and another the memory
Of it was saved for history and for
ourselves.
l have said that there were many
places where the road was almost or
entirely lost. The main caase Of this
was cultivation. AS the population
grew denser it became necessary to
pillow up the poorer land high up on
the hillside, and as these old roads
were not metaled in any way the
moment their surface was plowed up
no trace Of the road could possibly re-
main. Another cause was the fOrma-
ton of the great parks which rich men
began to inclOse and to wall around
about $50 years ago and later. II a
rich man took a fancy to bit OF
ground which used to be common and
through which the old road went he
would put wall round it and turn it
into q park and divert the right OF
way by special act Of parliament
round his new property. There are
examples of this all along the old road
as, for instance, at Lord Stanhope's
park at Chevening, at the Leveson-
Covers place at Titsey, at Lord Ger
ards park at Eastwell and many other
places.
The old road would also be lost over
marshy ground, and now and then,
but very rarely, modern buildings
would appear on it, and then, OF
course. it was impossible to track it
~.I OF