. The Old Road . foundbetween Itchen Stoke and Bishop Sutton, and very commonlywith unmetalled tracks or paths. But in all these cases it isbroken : there are stretches of it unused. Modern advantagesand modern necessities have left the Old Koad continually toone side. Here for this very considerable distance it is identicalwith the great turnpike, and so remains identical up to andbeyond its point of junction with the older Harrow Way atFarnham. Can we discover any explanation for this coincidence of a 87 THE EXPLORATION prehistoric track with the high-road of our own time, which isalmost ind
. The Old Road . foundbetween Itchen Stoke and Bishop Sutton, and very commonlywith unmetalled tracks or paths. But in all these cases it isbroken : there are stretches of it unused. Modern advantagesand modern necessities have left the Old Koad continually toone side. Here for this very considerable distance it is identicalwith the great turnpike, and so remains identical up to andbeyond its point of junction with the older Harrow Way atFarnham. Can we discover any explanation for this coincidence of a 87 THE EXPLORATION prehistoric track with the high-road of our own time, which isalmost indifferent to soil ? for the crossing of the clay ? for theneighbourhood of the river ? A little consideration will enable us to do so. The hillswhich everywhere else afford so even a platform for the pre-historic road are here of a contour which forbids their , as a thousand years ago, any road down this valleymust have run upon the same line. The contour-lines, of which a rough sketch is here appended,. m^M Abpve 500 feet ^m 400 ., Below are enough to prove it. There is a deep combe at HolybourneDown, two more on either side of Froyle, a fourth beyondBentley, a fifth—smaller—before Farnham. All these gulliescut up into a hopeless tangle what in Surrey and Kent willbecome one unbroken bank of chalk. Any path attemptingthese hillsides would either have doubled its length in avoidingthe hoUows, or would—had it remained direct—have been asuccession of steep ascents and falls; aU the dry slopes which88 OF THE KOAD bound the vale to the north are a succession of steep andisolated projections, thrust out from the distant main chain ofthe chalk; many of them are crowned with separated road is therefore compelled to follow the valley floor withall the consequences I have noted. As far as Froyle, two and a half miles from Alton, it neverleaves the river by more than a quarter of a mile, but thevalley is here dry, the soil gravelly and sandy, the height con-s
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