Genre:

Essay, Travelogue

Subjects:

Archaeology, Prehistory, Ethnology, Physical Geography, Theory, Error

    Reports that the lanes laid down in Devon are 'extremely ancient' and 'go back to Celtic times, or, beyond them, to that dim pre-historic antiquity, where even archaeology loses itself'. The almost entirely 'natural formation' of these 'aboriginal trackway[s]' by 'Violent rains [which] cut deep furrows in the road' also 'overthrows a theory which has before now found favour with ethnologists, and which would contrast the generous open-hearted Roman with the skulking Celt' according to the nature of the respective roads which they are supposed to have built. (744)

Reprinted:

Watkins 1883