Very soon the lane crosses another. The signpost that stands here, pointing in four directions, has a circle on top that says "Penn Cross". In this part of England, many crossroads have names of this type. Penn Cross appears to be a simple crossing of two byways, yet is surprisingly complicated, in that the lane coming from the left ends in three branches, like a delta, making two grassy islands. There seems to be quite a network of lanes running about on the top of this hill, intersecting each other in a pattern of triangles.

Only after passing by a couple of times and meditating on the map did I perceive the explanation. The two small lanes that cross here, now scarcely used, are older than either of the main roads (the modern A 35 and A 3052). This place, Penn Cross, is where the east-west route along the country (from Dorchester and Bridport toward Axminster and Exeter) crossed a south-north route inland (from Lyme toward the villages of the interior). Now it's all a quiet backwater, because the more modern A 3052 has cut off the corner, and the A 35, more modern still, takes a different route, engineering a great cutting through the flank of the hill.

Since this is a crossroads, you have a choice of three ways: left, ahead, or right.