66
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
his more recent book, A Detective in Essex, and therein he
acknowledged his debt to Watkins. I must confess to you
that 25 years ago I was fascinated by the mass of apparent
evidence which Watkins had accumulated in his countryside
of the Welsh marches, and at first there seemed to me ample
confirmation of his views in our own county of Essex.
I said that his theory had been vigorously attacked and
as vigorously championed, I fear with much emotion and
little reason on either side. It is clearly an attractive theory
to the lover of antiquity, but the desire to discover relatively
simple geometrical or numerical relations is a perennial
source of human error. You may remember the fantastic
astronomical fallacy called "Bode's Law" in which the
distances of the planets in the solar system were claimed
to be related by a simple numerical series; to say nothing
of the doctrines of "Numerology" and "Divination by
Numbers" which have held sway over the minds of men
for thousands of years. Also, much play has been made of
the rectilinear alignments of places with names having simi-
lar root-derivations, but the validity of the underlying theory
has only limited acceptance. Some such hope of simplification
has led Mr. Watkins and his disciples to go far beyond a
statement of undoubted fact, namely, that many sites of
antiquity can be grouped nearly in straight lines : it was
felt necessary to apply the alignment theory to explain
topographical features, to propound elaborate and esoteric
reconstructions of ancient philosophies, to derive anew many
of our place-names and to cast down the careful (but, I must
confess, in my opinion, none too secure) structure of Place-
name Philology. In this way discredit was brought upon
observations which may not in themselves be lacking in
value when unencumbered with fanciful theories. The
lengths to which Watkins' amateur supporters were pre-
pared to go is illustrated by a Communication from a Mr.
E. M. Slader, of Chelmsford:—
"This [Essex] is a country with very ancient earth-
works, innumerable moats, mark stones, stocks, mounds,
camps, etc. . . . Practically all the Essex churches lie in
absolutely straight lines with outstanding sighting points
at each end of the line; and almost every suggestive name