"Are we half way yet?"

This milestone is a mile from Kirkby Lonsdale and eleven miles from Kendal. As you might expect, there are several more to be found along the route. I have no idea how old the milestones are or whether they get repainted periodically. The black on this one looks fresher than most of our road signs.

In modern times, I can see the point of knowing how far you are from your destination. Are you going to be on time? Have I got enough petrol? Do I need to ring ahead to say I'm going to be late or to ask someone to put the kettle on?

But before the car, I wonder, practically, what purpose did they serve? If you were walking or riding from Kendal to Kirkby Lonsdale, what good did it do to know you were five miles from your destination? It was still going to take you just as long to get there. Maybe, travelling in a family, for example, you might agree that you'd set off early and stop for some breakfast after four miles.

But why not just stop when you're hungry? I think it is to do with the human need to measure, to know how far away things are from one another, to know how far we've been and how far there is left to go. And I wonder if it from this instinct, this desire, that science emerged?