26 THE ESSEX NATURALIST
and Hole Farm (set upon a low hill). All these names may be de-
rived from a Celtic root from which is also formed the modern
Welsh "Heol" (road or way).
The second records the very large number of "Galley" or
"Gallow" place names found along the track, as Gallow Hill (near
Gayton in Norfolk); Gallows Hill, Thetford; Gallows Green,
Ford Street; Galley Farm, near Great Leighs, Essex; Galley Hill,
Holyfield; Callow Hill, Livermere (note C, not G) and Gallow-
tree Common, on which lies the "Camp" mentioned above. We
regard these places not as descriptive of ancient sites of execu-
tions, as is usually supposed, but as places with names derived
from the Old English "gelaete", meaning a "meeting-place",
from which has also been derived the word "Leet". We have
mentioned that a number of our stones have in the past formed
the nucleus of Leets and Moots, and it is not unlikely that Galley-
places hold a similar association. That Early English Leets may
have been the place of summary justice and execution lends colour
to this view.
We have described that the Church at Chesham, Bucks., is
built upon the site of a puddingstone circle, which receives con-
firmation in the tenth century name for this town—Caestaele-
shamm, meaning "the Ham with or by a caestel or heap of
stones" [9]. Cheshunt, Herts., which also stands upon the track,
probably has a similar derivation, although no Saxon rendering
of this name is recorded. Both Cheshunt and Chesham are noted
in Domesday Book as Cestrehunt and Cestreham respectively.
The place-name "Grimston" occurs twice upon the track, and,
with "Grimes Graves", is without doubt a survival of the Norse
"grimr", a synonym of Odin. Grimston may be interpreted as
Odin's stone, and in a similar manner, Thurston, Suffolk, would
be derived from "thyrs", a giant or demon. A further striking
example of Early English mythology is found in the name Drake-
stone, derived from "dracan", a dragon.
However, these observations offer little more than a general
confirmation of antiquity, and to obtain an approximation of the
age and purpose of the track we must consider many other
factors, of which the most important is its association with the
flint mines at Grimes Graves. A. L.Armstrong has shown [10] that
the importance of this site declined during Neolithic times, and
there is evidence to show that well before the end of the Stone Age
a wholesale migration took place from Norfolk to Sussex. If this
be so, the age of our track cannot be later than the end of the
Neolithic period in Britain.
Yet it is also clear that our track does not fit in with our know-
ledge of the Neolithic culture. It is very different from the known
Neolithic trackways, such as Icknield Way or Ridgeway, and its