THE CONGLOMERATE TRACK
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weathered stones from the beds of the many streams crossing the
path of the track, where erosion has removed the boulder clays
and gravels and exposed the conglomerate strata below. Some are
very large, up to four or six feet in length, whilst others are small
enough to be lifted in the arms of one man. Herein lies one of the
most extraordinary features of the series, for it is little short of
miraculous that such small boulders should have survived through
centuries of human occupation of the area (Plate 4).
Up to the present time we have found, or proved on reliable and
confirmed evidence, the existence of 125 of these trackstones, and
these are by no means evenly spaced. At times they are close to-
gether, perhaps four or five to the mile, and at other times we
cross six or eight miles of open country before rediscovering the
trail. As we proceeded further afield detailed search became more
difficult, and we have no hesitation in affirming that very many
more track-boulders will come to light in course of time. A great
number undoubtedly lie in the many woods and thickets in the
course of the track, which hitherto we have not been able to exam-
ine. Yet, despite the broken and interrupted nature of the track,
there is a striking uniformity in design throughout its entire length.
It clearly led the traveller from the populated Chiltern slopes,
across the gravei-capped ridges of Hertfordshire and Essex, bear-
ing in a great semi-circle eighty miles in diameter to the sandy
heaths and commons of Norfolk. The track-builder avoided the
chalk as effectively as he did the boulder clay of East Anglia, care-
fully plotting his way from gravel-cap to gravel-cap along the up-
land ridges. He crossed his streams at fords where the slopes fall
steeply to the water-edge, and where the current flowed shallow
over a firm pebbly bed. His stones were placed in full view upon
the hilltops and beside the fords, determined in their spacing and
frequency by the features of the terrain.
Many of the stones have sunk deeply into the subsoil, and others
are in all probability completely submerged. On the other hand
those resting upon gravel are found completely above the surface,
except where the accumulation of decayed vegetation has en-
croached around the base.
There is ample evidence for the antiquity of the trail of stones,
for many of them are associated with Early English and Medieval
times. No fewer than sixteen boulders are found in the structure or
in the vicinity of churches of Saxon origin, either in the founda-
tions of the walls of the nave, or as monoliths in the churchyard.
These were clearly "pagan" stones, incorporated in the fabric of
the early Christian church in conformity with the recorded prac-
tices of the times. Six examples of stones have been found forming
the nucleus of medieval community life, either as market-stones
or upon the site of manorial or church court leets and moots. As