In May 1977 I was returning home late one night and passing the neo-Gothic church of St. Peter's, the parish church of Brighton. I had dowsed this from the very beginning and found nothing. I had concluded that in some way it was 'graceless'. Later, I had I had established that the architect was Sir Charles Berry, architect with Pugin of the new Palace of Westminster, and therefore 'knowledgeable'. I had reflected, some years ago, that perhaps he hadn't got this one right, and thought no more of it. However, on that particular night, the thought struck me that perhaps here was a case of interference. I made enquiries of Deor and was told I was right. I had never asked this question before. I did the necessary invocation and suddenly the church was in the system, manifesting single lines from each side and on its longitudinal axis 14-bar lines.

As I went home, I was able to discover that the southern line, a 14-bar line, went straight to the octagonal room of Prinny's Pavilion, and thence through the Old Town Hall of Brighton, a neo-Classical structure, and then on out to sea. In subsequent days one could see how this line moved northwards, in and out of the Wolstenbury area and on in the general direction of London, creating new lines in an area with which I was very familiar. It appeared that one had opened up an entirely new circuit of indefinite distance, just as one presses a button on a map of the London Tube or Paris Metro and lights up a particular route. This line ran through Preston Park, through a late 19th century clock-tower, a fruit of the munificence of a local worthy, and thence to a neo-Gothic church and on up to Wolstenbury. The clock-tower is an octagonal construction on an octagonal plinth. After a week or so, the 14-bar line subsided into a single.

Driving past this area of Brighton each day a further thought suddenly struck me. From St. Peter's down to the sea run a series of gardens in a sort of avenue, culminating in the circular area with gardens and fountain called Old Steine. Outside St. Peter's is a white obelisk war memorial and at the other end, just before the fountain of the Old Steine, is a dark red granite obelisk, a war memorial of the Royal Sussex Regiment. I had seen examples of black and white, or dark and light, obelisks at Blenheim Palace, at the Katyn Memorial at Gunnersbury and at the memorial of the Polish Air Force at Northolt. I further noticed that the dark obelisk was in conjunction with another municipal war memorial, mosque-like in style, a dome above an octagon, and I recalled the tradition that Old Steine referred to the ancient stone circle that was once there. Indeed on a Radio Brighton a 'white witch', self-proclaimed, had stated this to be the case, and also that the original megaliths are the stones to be seen today around the base of the fountain. Furthermore, in a garden between the two is a tree circle, and a notice says,"It is an offence to enter this area".

Shortly afterwards, my brother, David, came to stay the weekend and we went to have a closer look. In front of the domed war memorial the 7 circles were complete, and behind them was a triple line leading into the square pool associated with it, but not emerging the other side. We got it going, and a 7-bar line emerged joining the memorial to the fountain and to the dark obelisk. The dark obelisk put out lateral triples, one to the octagonal room in the Pavilion and another that eventually went out to sea, but that was all. We noticed, too, that on either side of the tree circle in the forbidden area were two rectangular plinths about 50 yards apart - with erased inscription. They reminded me of Beckford's plinths at Fonthill and whatever had been on them had been removed. Further up towards St. Peter's, in the same garden, was a large octagonal fountain, whose octagon was not readily apparent, but set in a sunken octagonal pool, only visible from very close.

At 2.00 a.m. that night, I moved into the forbidden area. A triple line ran from each plinth to the tree circle in the centre. Within the tree circle were the 7 circles with the wedge to the north missing. With due permissions and invocations, I was able to complete them. What surprised me was that a 49-bar line now embraced all these points, from the fountain at Old Steine all the way to St.Peter's, narrowing down at the fountain, war memorial, obelisks, tree circle, octagonal fountain, etc., thus indicating them to be critical foci in the system. By any test this system was one of the most deliberately contrived which I have ever encountered, circling megalithic stones, war memorials, obelisks, tree circles, double plinths, octagonal fountain and neo-Gothic church. I repaired home, puzzled, to my couch. I confidently expected the 49-bar line to wane with time, as the 7-bar line had done, but it didn't and it was still there two months later. This, from previous experience, indicates it to be permanent.

I expected it to follow, more or less, the track of the London road, but it didn't. From St. Peter's it went off north-east to Lewes, via a dew-pond on the Downs. At Lewes it arrived at the Priory, where it turned north to the parish church. Then on - surprise - to the isolated Hamsey Old Church, the church where we had taken the strange photograph three years before, and which we found to be in a diamond of lines passing through strange holes in the buttresses. From there the line goes to Newick Parish Church, Maresfield Church and again, surprise, through the Foreign and Commonwealth Radio Communications Station near Crowborough, whence it joins the main line from Pevensey at High Rocks, near Tunbridge Wells. And top of one of those huge Cyclopean rocks, I found the point where the two incoming lines narrowed to a focus of minute dimensions before continuing on to Penshurst Place via Tunbridge Wells. On one of the neighbouring rocks is engraved the following inscription:

"Infidel! Who with thy finite wisdom

Wouldst grasp things infinite and dost become

A scoffer of God's holiest Mysteries.

Behold this Rock, then tremble and rejoice.

Tremble, for He who formed the mighty mass

Could in His justice crush thee where thou art.

Rejoice that still His Mercy spares thee."

March 21st 1831 J.Phippen

High Rocks is an awe-inspiring group of huge blocks of sandstone, 50-60 feet high and wide, with strangely wrought fissures between them, and well cut sides. It is said that this place was first brought to public attention by King James the First, who visited it when he was a guest of Sir Philip Sydney at Penshurst, and it was opened up as a public beauty spot - not surprising as the Stuarts were interested in such places.

The questions raised by this experience are huge, and I believe the correct answer contains the truth about the whole ley-line system. Why had someone or some power turned off a line which ran from megaliths, war memorials, tree circle, fountain, double plinths, obelisks, neo-Gothic and Medieval churches, dew-pond, priory, radio-station and Cyclopean stones? Who was responsible for the building of the elaborate system at Brighton - the war memorials and obelisks, etc.? Could there be a group of people with 'Masonic' knowledge in the Public Works Department? What purpose is served by switching it on? Why were the inscriptions on the Brighton Plinths erased? How on earth does the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Radio Communications Station get in on the act? There is no easy answer, but the real answer will unlock the mystery. This particular case is central.

I later discovered that the garden with the plinths and the tree circle is set in a 'diamond' of lines, as is Hamsey, to which the line went on. "The diamond is a form of the Vesica Piscis", said Bob Cowley who was with me, and he pointed to a statue of Queen Victoria in the same complex. On each side of the plinth, in bas-relief, was (*illustration). My later enquiries showed that the missing statues were two of a set of five, which had come from the Mayfair home of Sir Barney Barnato, a self-made millionaire, who had committed suicide in strange circumstances. The house had been bought by the Sassoons, who owned much of Brighton, and it was at their behest that the statues, five of them, were set up in Queen Victoria Park. There was a public campaign against them, and they were removed - nobody knows to where. Three plinths were distributed to mark the entrances of other parks in Brighton and two were left, inscriptionless, to mark the potential passage of the line through the tree circle. I have an old post card, showing the statues in situ. They were of worthy subjects, like grace and charity. Why there was a public outcry against objects of Victorian worthiness, I cannot understand. A deeper mystery lurks underneath, and it is another of those extraordinary side-lights that illumine the whole of the story.