Hallowed Roads: Routes to the Crossroads

The status of the crossroads in the early modern imagination is bound up with ideas of the road itself, and certain roads in particular, especially where this refers to the pedestrians who might use them in ways beyond the normal necessity to travel. With the understanding that to fully understand any geographical site it must be seen in the context of the roads which lead in and out of it, this chapter explores sacred paths of various kinds, including the ‘church-way paths’ of Britain, the ancient countryside funeral routes which were understandably invested with some superstitious awe. Roads of this kind were a part of the early modern psyche and are referred to in texts like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and in the historical record. These and other forms of sacred or moral paths lent some of their presence to the places where roads crossed, and so inform the nature and understanding of the crossroads in literature and history.