Alfred Watkins (1855 –1935), amateur archaeologist, antiquarian and inventor, and author of 'The Old Straight Track'. Famous, or infamous, for his proposition that ancient man walked every where in straight lines, which he termed 'leys'. I am reading 'The Old Straight Track', and that's what's inspired this piece. It is a lovely book, full of ametuer scholastic enthusiasm for the sorts of things that interest me, such as landscape, ancient monuments, and walking in the countryside with an eye to reading its history. He is perhaps overly taken with his theory of Leys, but he is quite systematic and rational about it. The work has none of the magical or mystical ideas that later attached themselves to the notion. I guess he reminds me of me, an ametuer enthusiast who perhaps is more taken with his own ideas than their credibility might deserve.
Anyway, who is that mystery (& less than adequate) violinist?
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