Britain's Earliest Roads 7 



The early importance of amber in Europe is proved, Mr Tylor 

 says, by its presence in many parts of Europe throughout the 

 long neolithic age, and, therefore, long prior to the bronze age ; 

 and it was mainly to facilitate the exchange of metals for this 

 much-desired amber that the Britons made roads or tracks 

 from the high grounds which they generally chose for their 

 habitations (thus avoiding alike the forests, the fens and the 

 marshes), down to the ports from which the metals were to be 

 shipped to their destination. Mr Tylor says on this point : 



" The first British tin-commerce with the Continent in 

 prehistoric times moved, either on packhorses or by chariots, 

 in hilly districts, towards Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, that is, 

 in the direction from west to east ; then by sea from the 

 eastern British shipping ports, of which Camulodunum on the 

 Stour, close to the Thames (Colchester) is a type, to the Baltic. 

 Thus at first the ' tin ' used to find its way partly by land 

 and partly by sea from Cornwall to the mouths of the Elbe 

 and Vistula, there to meet the land caravans of the Baltic 

 amber commerce from the north of Europe to the south. . . . 

 When the land route throughout Gaul was established the tin 

 had to go across the English Channel, not to Brittany, across 

 the rougher and wider part, but to Normandy. The Isle of 

 Wight was nearer Normandy, and a suitable entrepot for the 

 coasters meeting the fleets of ocean trading ships. l . . . 



" Iron and lead were, also, valuable British productions, 

 and could easily reach the Isle of Wight by coasting % learners 

 or by the British or Roman roads via Salisbury or Win- 

 chester. . . . 



" All ancient roads to British shipping ports were, of 

 course, British. . . . Without roads it would be impossible 

 to get over the low, often clay, grounds, or to reach the seaports 

 in chariots, as the seaports were constantly in the clay. . . . 

 It was impossible to reach the shipping-ports, which are all at 

 low levels, without roads, as the clay and sand would be 

 impassable for chariots. Of course packhorses could travel 

 where chariots could not, but if the main roads were made for 

 chariots they would be equally good for packhorses." 



Mr Tylor thinks there is the greater reason for assuming 

 that a considerable trade had thus been developed between 



1 Mr Tylor argues that Brading, in the Isle of Wight, was the favoured 

 point of shipment. 



