Byways in British Archaeology

BYWAYS IN BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS London: FETTER·LANE, E.C. C. F. CLAY, Manager
Edinburgh: 100, Princes Street Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO. Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS New York: G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. All rights reserved
BY WALTER JOHNSON, F.G.S. AUTHOR OF FOLK-MEMORY , ETC. Cambridge: at the University Press 1912 Cambridge: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
The following chapters, though superficially presenting the appearance of disconnected essays, really possess a strong bond of continuity. Running through the whole, implied, where not actually expressed, will be found an insistence on the principle which, in a former work, I ventured to call folk-memory. This folk-memory—unconsciously, for the most part, but sometimes with open ceremony—keeps alive those popular beliefs and practices which are individually called survivals. With some of these legacies from the past the present volume deals.
To a large extent the studies are connected with the church and churchyard. The sections which treat of pagan sites, orientation, and burial customs, embody the results of observations relating to some hundreds of buildings in all parts of England and Wales. The chapters on “The Folk-Lore of the Cardinal Points” and “The Labour’d Ox” partially, at least, break virgin soil. In “The Churchyard Yew” are set down inferences drawn from many years of investigation, the literary side of which has been rendered difficult by the existence, in various modern works, of unfounded statements and hypothetical references. The remainder of the book treats of somewhat more familiar themes, though it is hoped that fresh outlooks are suggested.
Since some of the matters here brought forward have been, and indeed still are, provocative of keen, and even heated controversy, to anticipate agreement with all the conclusions would be sheer folly. Nevertheless, it may be claimed that the facts collected have been carefully sifted, the references conscientiously verified, and the opposing theories honestly presented.