ALIGNMENTS OF ANCIENT SITES IN ESSEX 71
(which use, I believe, a modified Mercator's Projection
known as the polyconical projection) the lines of latitude are
not straight, but in a distance of 20 inches, representing 20
miles, they bow southward about 100 yards from true
linearity. This is enough to invalidate the use of a stretched
thread or straight-edge in delineating a long alignment
which, for instance, was truly east-and-west. The ordinary
distortion of Great Circles on Mercator's Projection should
also be taken into account, but in an area as small as half
Essex, the distortion would itself be very small and will dis-
appear to zero for directions along the meridians. All this
is a warning that the best of maps must be used with
awareness of their inevitable distortions before making a
pronouncement about alleged alignments more than a few
miles long, and I doubt if Watkins ever faced this difficulty;
there is no mention of it in Watkins' books, although I am
informed that his followers have taken account of map
distortions.
Returning now to Table 3. In the third area, which I have
called Mid-S. Essex, we have again reasonably good agree-
ment with the expectation for random scattering except
that there is, in addition, one six-site alignment; the odds
against finding one such alignment among 45 spots dis-
tributed at random in this manner are 100 to 9 against. I will
quote the sites concerned so that anyone may verify the
alignment. They are the Parish Churches of Hockley,
Bowers Gifford, Fobbing, Corringham and Mucking and
St. Chad's Well.
It is an interesting commentary on the emotionally
exciting nature of this '' ley hunting'' that the alignment
quoted above and at least two others of lower order, all
appeared to intersect at a point on the blank margin of my
map of Southend and District. I transferred the co-
ordinates of this point of intersection to the adjoining
map-sheet and found it was the site marked "St. Chad's
Well", near Tilbury, which I had not previously known.
Now, Holy Wells are one class of objects specially favoured
by Watkins for terminal points of his "leys", as are also
Beacon Hills; moreover, when I extended the line beyond
Steeple, I found just beside the prolongation of this six-site
alignment, a "Beacon Hill" marked on my map.