The Collected Works of Hilaire Belloc. Hilaire Belloc
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id="ulink_1755cfb4-77f4-5449-882e-b2d25e36d335">12. Leaving upon our left the first of the archæological discoveries which mark the whole of the Road:—the Roman villa unearthed or explored by Mr. Collier in 1878.
13. The balance of evidence is certainly against it. In favour of the antiquity of New Alresford we have the phrase restored applied to Bishop Lucy's market, and the three churches attached to Alresford in Domesday, and supposed to show that more than one village was attached to the manor. Against, we have the immediate presence of the artificial head of water established by the Bishop; the name, and the fact that the medieval road from Alton went not to New but to Old Alresford. Again, while there is no special mention of New Alresford in Domesday, there is mention of Sutton, close by, and a Bishop's palace stood there for some centuries.
14. Their passage is an excellent example of the Reversion of the Pilgrimage to an ancient road. The regular road in the thirteenth century was presumably that by Chawton Wood and Bighton, mentioned by Duthie, who finds it in a charter of Henry III.'s. (This charter, it is only fair to add, was never discovered by his executors.)
15. Thus West Street and Broad Street near Lenham, Dun Street at the edge of Eastwell, the old name for Albury (Weston Street), etc.
16. The point where the line leaves the modern road is east of Bury Lane, just past a farm called Dean Farm. The ridge is first noticeable in the field marked 134 in the ½500 inch Ordnance Map for Hampshire [XLII. 7, Old Series, 1870, Ropley Parish].
17. These fields are marked 191, 192, and 194 on ½500 inch Ordnance Map, Hampshire, Old Series, 1870, XLII. 8.
18. The boundary between the fields marked 201, and 202–3 in map cited above. The track is again lost for a short distance in crossing the field marked 205.
19. The last few yards of the alignment follow the boundary between plots marked 219 and 216 in map already quoted.
20. Moreover, from this same point the medieval road to Old Alresford mentioned above left Alton.
21. Though the valley is full of clay the road avoids it with remarkable success. Of the eight miles between Alton and Farnham the first three have chosen a narrow strip of good gravel, the next one and a half miles are on green-sand. At the entry to Bentley village the clay is unavoidable, but after a mile of it the road takes advantage of a patch of gravel as far as the Bull Inn. It has then to cross a quarter-mile belt of gault, but beyond this it uses a long, irregular, and narrow patch of gravel, and at the end of this, just east of the county boundary, it finds the narrow belt of sand which it keeps to all the way to Farnham. The whole is an example of how a primitive track will avoid bad soil.
22. This field is marked 37 in the ½500-inch Ordnance Map for Surrey, l. xxxi.
23. The field is unnumbered in the 25-inch Ordnance, but the diagonal can be given as going to the NW. corner of the two-acre plot and cottage, marked 121 in the ½500 map for Surrey (XXXII. 1), and forming a detached part of the parish of Shere.
24. The spot where the Old Road is recovered again beyond the plough may be identified on the ½500 map for Surrey (XXXII. 4.) It is the north-west corner of the field marked 147, just at the Chalk Pit.
25. The course of this portion may be traced on the ½500 Ordnance (Surrey, XXV. 15) as follows:—Under the old quarry just east of the lime pits, right across the seventy-five acre field marked 42 (which forms the spur), over the railway line and the London Road bridge, and crossing the Mole a few yards north of Pixham Mill. Then right across plot marked 75 to the westernmost isolated tree in plot 74. At this point the Old Road is traceable again.
26. It is possible that it goes over the spur of Brockham Hill. The track is not at all clear for these few yards.
27. Here our track is quite different from that given in the ½500 Ordnance map for Surrey (XXVI. 10), where it is carried along the base of the hill past Buckland Lime Pits. The Ordnance map practically confesses its error, for in the succeeding sheet (XXVI. 11) the Pilgrim's Way reappears suddenly in its right place, at the top of the crest. It is easy for any one who has walked the road to see how this part of it was neglected. It is overgrown with a thick growth, and most of it, though quite plain, is not seen till you are right upon it.
28. The ½500 Ordnance map for Surrey (XXVI. 11) gives the road as going outside the Park. This is an error. It destroys the alignment altogether. The true course of it is: Enters Gatton Park south of the upper lodge, passes through the trees to the left of the carriage drive, forms part of this drive towards bottom of hill near middle lodge. Then enters wood north of Gatton Tower, and appears as terrace along side of hill. Then appears again in avenue leading to east lodge, and so out of the Park.
29. It is denied that the Portus Adurni was Shoreham: but then, everything is denied.
30. On the ½500 Ordnance map for Surrey (XXVII. 5) this track may be followed thus: Along the top of Ockley Wood, across the large fields marked 192 and 189 (rising slightly), and reaching summit towards NE. corner of the next field (168).
31. This field is marked 2 in the ½500 Ordnance map for Surrey (XXVII. 8).
32. The conjecture of the 6-inch Ordnance map for Surrey, that the road plunged down on to the plain before Gravelly Hill, and stayed there till it reappeared again in the Eye Wood, may be dismissed for the following reasons:—(1) There is no trace of it nor of any footpath or trench the whole way; (2) the Old Road never goes into the plain (save to cross a valley) at any other point; (3) the arbitrary straight line in the Ordnance map perversely clings to a very narrow belt of stiff gault! (4) there is no drainage slope on this line; (5) there is no view of the track before one such as is maintained as far as possible throughout the Old Road.
The conjecture appears to be based upon nothing more than the name, 'Palmer's Wood,' at the turning point of this supposed track.
33. We owed our knowledge of this, as so much else, to Mrs. Adie's book, of which I wish to make continual acknowledgment.
34. The track here is well marked on the ½500 Ordnance map of Kent (XXVIII. 12, XXVIII. 16), first as a footpath (on field 73), then right across the small plantation to the east, past a clump of trees a little east of that (where it is marked by a distinct embankment), and so to the lane which has no local name, but bounds to