ENGLISH EDENS
At bottom, a man is what his thinking is, thoughts being the
artists who give colour to our days. Optimists and pessimists live
in the same world, walk under the same sky, and observe the same
facts. Sceptics and believers look up at the same great stars--the
stars that shone in Eden, and will flash again in Paradise.--Dr. J.
FORT NEWTON.
The name under which Jupiter was worshipped in Crete is not yet
deciphered, but as we are told that the favourite abode of King Jou at
Gnossus was on Mount Olympus where in its delightful recesses he held
his court, and administered patriarchal justice; and as we are further
told by Julius Firmicus that: "vainly the Cretans to this day adore the
tumulus of Jou," it is fairly obvious that, however many historic King
Jou's there may have been, the archetypal Jou was a lord of the tumulus
or dun.
The ancient Irish were accustomed to call _any_ hill or artificial mound
under which lay vaults, a _shee_, which also is the generic term for
fairy: similarly we have noted a connection between the term _rath_--or
dun--and _wraith_. Although fairies were partial to banks, braes,
purling brooks, brakes, and bracken, they particularly loved to
congregate in duns or raths, and their rapid motions to and fro these
headquarters were believed to create a noise "somewhat resembling the
loud humming of bees when swarming from a hive". I have little doubt
that all hills, _bryns_, or barrows were regarded not only as _bruen_,
or breasts, but as ethereal beehives, and the superstitions still
associated with bees are evidence that bees themselves were once deemed
sacred. There are upwards of a thousand localities in Ireland alone
where the word _rath_, _raw_, _rah_, _ray_, or _ra_ marks the site of a
fairy rath,[820] and without going so far as to assert that every
British -_dun_ or -_ton_ was a fairy _dun_ or _doun_ further
investigation will probably establish an unsuspected multitude of
Dunhills or Edens.
[Illustration: FIG. 444.--Birs Nimroud.]
We have seen that in Ireland _fern_ meant anciently _anything good_, and
also in all probability _fer en_ the Fires or Fairies: at the romantic
hill of Cnock-Firinn or the _Hill of firinn_ was supposed to dwell a
fairy chief named Donn Firineach, _i.e._, Donn the Truthful or the
Truthteller;[821] evidently, therefore, this Don was a counterpart and
consort of Queen Vera, and as he is reputed to have come from Spain his
name may be connoted with the Spanish _don_ which, like the Phoenician
_adon_, is a generic term meaning _the lord_. With "Generous Donn the
King of Faery" may be connoted the Jewish Adonai, a plural form of
_Adon_ "lord" combined with the pronoun of the first person: when
reading the Scriptures aloud the Jews rather than utter the super-sacred
word Jhuh, substitute Adonai, and in Jewry Adonai is thus a title of the
Supreme Being. Among the Phoenicians Adon or _the lord_ was specially
applied to the King of Heaven or the Sun and that sacred Nineveh was
essentially a dunhill is evidenced by Fig. 444
With Adon may be connoted Adonis, the lovely son of Myrrha and Kinyras,
whose name has been absorbed into English as meaning any marvellously
well-favoured youth: prior to the festivals of Adonis it was customary
to grow forced gardens in earthen or _silver_ pots, and there would thus
seem to have been a close connection in ideas between our English
"_whytepot_ queen" or maiden with the pyramid of silver, and with the
symbolic Gardens of Adonis or Eden as grown in Phrygia and Egypt.
Skeat connotes the word maiden--which is an earlier form than
_maid_--with the Cornish _maw_, a boy: if, however, we read _ma_ as
_mother_ the word _maiden_ becomes _Mother Iden_, and I have little
doubt that the Maiden of mythology and English harvest-homes was the
feminine Adonis. Adonis was hymned as the Shepherd of the Twinkling
Stars; I have surmised that Long Meg of the seventy-two Daughters was
the Mighty Maiden of the Stars, whence it is interesting to find Skeat
connoting _maiden_ with Anglo-Saxon _magu_, a kinsman: that Long Meg was
the All Mother whence _mag_ or _mac_ came to mean _child of_ has already
been suggested. Not only does Long Meg of Cumberland stand upon Maiden
Way, but there is in the same district a Maidenmoor probably like
Maidenhead or Maidenheath, a heath or mead dedicated to the Maid. Our
dictionaries define the name May as a contraction of either Mary or
Margaret, _i.e._, Meg: in the immediate neighbourhood of Long Meg is
another circle called Mayborough, of which the vallum or enclosure is
composed of stones taken from the beds of the Eamount or Eden rivers; in
the centre of Mayborough used to stand four magnificent monoliths
probably representative of the four _deacons_ or Good Kings who
supported the Whytepot Queen.
There is a seat called St. Edans in Ireland close to Ferns where, as
will be remembered, is St. Mogue's Well: in Lincolnshire is a
Maidenwell-_cum-Farworth_, and at Dorchester is a Haydon Hill in the
close proximity of Forstone and _Goodman_stone. That this Haydon was the
_Good Man_ is implied by the stupendous monument near by known as Mew
Dun, Mai Dun, or Maiden Castle: this _chef d'oeuvre_ of prehistoric
engineering, generally believed to be the greatest earthwork in Britain,
is an oblong camp extending 1000 yards from east to west with a width of
500 yards, and it occupies an area of 120 acres:[822] entered by four
gates the work itself is described as puzzling as a series of mazes, and
to reach the interior one is compelled to pass through a labyrinth of
defences. The name Dorchester suggests a Droia or Troy camp, and I have
little doubt that the labyrinthine Maiden was a colossal Troy Town or
Drayton. Among the many Draytons in England is a Drayton-Parslow, which
suggests that it stood near or upon a Parr's low or a Parr's lea: out of
great Barlow Street, Marylebone, leads Paradise Place and Paradise
Passage: there is a Drayton Park at Highbury, and in the immediate
proximity an Eden Grove and Paradise Road: there was a Troy Town where
Kensington Palace now stands,[823] and in all likelihood there was
another one at Drayton near Hanwell and Hounslow. That Hounslow once
contained an _onslow_ or _ange hill_ seems to me more probable than that
it was merely the "burial mound" of an imaginary _Hund_ or _Hunda_: in
Domesday Hounslow figures as Honeslow which may be connoted with
Honeybourne at Evesham and Honeychurch in Devon. With regard to the
latter it has been observed: "The connection between a church and honey
is not very obvious, and this is probably Church of _Huna_": the
official explanation of "Honeybourne" is--"brook with honey sweet
water," but it is more probable that Queen Una was reputed to dwell
there. That Una was not merely the creation of Spenser is evidenced from
the fact that in Ireland "Una is often named by the peasantry as regent
of the preternatural _Sheog_ tribes":[824] at St. Mary's-in-the-Marsh,
Thanet, is a Honeychild Manor and an Old Honeychild: with the Three
White Balls at Iona it may be noted that on the summit of Hydon Heath
(Surrey) is a place marked Hydon's Ball.
At a distance of "about 110 yards" from Mayborough is another circle
known as Arthur's Round _Table_: a mile from Dunstable is a circular
camp known as Maiden Bower, whence it is probable that Dunstable meant
either Dun staple (market), or that the circular camp there was a
"table" of "generous Donn". That the term "Maiden" used here and
elsewhere means _maiden_ as we now understand it may be implied from the
famous Maiden Stone in Scotland: this sculptured Longstone, now
measuring 10 feet in height, bears upon it the mirror and comb which
were essentially the emblems of the Mairymaid.
There is an eminence called Maiden Bower near Durham which figures
alternatively as _Dun_holme; Durham is supposed to mean--"wild beast's
home or lair," but I see no more reason to assign this ferocious origin
to Durham than, say, to Dorchester or Doracestria: Ma, the mistress of
Mount Ida, was like Britomart[825] esteemed to be the Mother of all
beasts or _brutes_, and particularly of _deer_; Diana is generally
represented with a deer, and the woody glens of many-crested Ida were
indubitably a lair of forest brutes--
Thus Juno spoke, and to her throne return'd,
While they to spring-abounding Ida's heights,
Wild nurse of forest beasts, pursued their way.[826]
Yorkshire, or Eboracum and the surrounding district, the habitat of the
Brigantes, was known anciently as Deira: by the Romans Doracestria, or
Dorchester was named Durnovaria upon which authority comments: "In the
present name there is nothing which represents _varia_, so that it
really seems to mean 'fist camp'"; doubtless, fisticuffs,
boxing-matches, and many other kind of Trojan game were once held at
Doracestria as at every other Troy or Drayton.
King Priam, the Mystic King of Troy, is said to have had fifty sons and
daughters: the same family is assigned not only to St. Brychan of
Cambria, but also to King Ebor, or Ebrauc of York, whence in all
probability the Brigantes who inhabited Yorkshire and Cumberland were
followers of one and the same Priam, Prime, Broom, Brahm, or Brahma: the
name Abraham or Ibrahim is defined as meaning "father of a multitude".
The Kentish Broom Park near Patrixbourne whereby is Hearts Delight,
Maydeacon House, and Kingston is on Heden Downs, and immediately
adjacent is a Dennehill and Denton: at Dunton Green, near Sevenoaks, the
presence of a Mount Pleasant implies that this Dunton was an Eden Town.
There is an Edenkille, or Eden Church at Elgin, and at Dudley is a Haden
Cross, supposed to have derived its title "from a family long resident
here": it would be preferable and more legitimate to assign this family
name to the site and describe them as the "De Haden's". There is a
Haddenham at Ely, and at Ely Place, Holborn, opposite St. Andrews, is
Hatton Garden: I suggest that Sir Christopher Hatton, like the Hadens of
Haden Cross, derived his name from his home, and not _vice versa_.
In the Hibernian county of Clare is an Eden Vale: Clare Market in London
before being pulled down was in the parish of St. Clement _Dane_, here
also stood Dane's Inn, and within a stone's throw is the church of St.
Dunstan. The numerous St. Dunstans were probably once Dane stones, or
Dun stanes, and the sprightly story of St. Dunstan seizing the nose of a
female temptress with the tongs must be relegated to the Apocrypha. In
the opinion of Sir Laurence Gomme the predominant cult in Roman London
was undoubtedly that of Diana, for the evidence in favour of this
goddess includes not only an altar, but other finds connected with her
worship: Sir Laurence goes even further than this, stating his
conviction that "Diana practically absorbed the religious expression of
London":[827] that London was a _Lunadun_ has already been suggested.
It has always been strongly asserted by tradition that St. Paul's
occupies the site of a church of Diana: if this were so the Diana stones
on the summit of Ludgate Hill would have balanced the Dun stones on the
opposing bank of the river Fleet, or Bagnigge. We have seen that _mam_
in Gaelic meant a gently sloping hill; the two dunhills rising from the
river Fleet, or Bagnigge, were thus probably regarded like the Paps of
Anu at Killarney, as twin breasts of the Maiden: there are parallel
"Maiden Paps" near Berriedale (Caithness), others near Sunderland, and
others at Roxburgh. According to Stow the famous cross at Cheapside was
decorated with a statue of Diana, the goddess, to which the adjoining
Cathedral had been formerly dedicated: prior to the Reformation, two
jets of water--like the jets in Fig. 44 (p. 167)--prilled from Diana's
naked breast "but now decayed".
By Claremarket and the church of St. Clement Dane stood Holywell Street,
somewhat north of which was yet another well called--according to
Stow--Dame Annis the _Clear_, and not far from it, but somewhat West,
was also one other _clear_ water called Perilous Pond. This "perilous"
was probably once _peri lass, i.e., perry lass_, or _pure lass_, and the
neighbouring Clerkenwell (although the city clerks or _clerken_ may in
all likelihood have congregated there on summer evenings), was once
seemingly sacred to the same type of phairy as the Irish call a
_cluricanne_.[828] The original Clerken, or Cluricanne, was in all
probability the resplendent _clarus_, clear, shining, _Glare_ King, or
_Glory_ King: but it is equally likely that the -_ken_ of Clerken was
the endearing diminutive _kin_, as in Lambkin. That St. Clare was adored
by her disciples is clear from _The Golden Legend_, where among other
interesting data we are told: "She was crowned with a crown right clear
shining that the obscurity of the night was changed into clearness of
midday": we are further told that once upon a time as a certain friar
was preaching in her presence: "a right fair child was to fore St.
Clare, and abode there a great part of the sermon". It is thus
permissible to assume that this marvellous holy woman, whose doctrine
shall "enlumine all the world," was originally depicted in company of
the customary Holy Child, or the Little Glory King.
The original Clerken Well stood in what is now named Ray Street, and
quite close to it is Braynes Row; not far distant was Brown's Wood.[829]
The name Sinclair implies an order or a tribe of Sinclair followers, and
that the St. Dunstan by St. Clement's Dane and Claremarket was something
more than a monk is obvious from the tradition that "Our Lord shewed
miracles for him _ere he was born_": the marvel in point is that on a
certain Candlemas Day the candle of his Mother Quendred[830]
miraculously burned full bright so that others came and lighted their
tapers at the taper of St. Dunstan's mother; the interpretation placed
upon this marvel was that her unborn child should give light to all
England by his holy living.[831]
[Illustration: FIG. 445.--Gaulish. From Akerman.]
As recorded in _The Golden Legend_ the life of poor St. Clare was one
long dolorous great moan and sorrow: it is mentioned, however, that she
had a sister Agnes and that these two sisters loved marvellously
together. We may thus assume that the celestial twins were Ignis, _fire_
and Clare, _light_: _Agnes_ is the Latin for _lamb_, and this symbol of
Innocence is among the two or three out of lost multitudes which have
been preserved by the Christian Church. In the illustration herewith the
lambkin, in conjunction with a star, appears upon a coin of the Gaulish
people whose chief town was Agatha: its real name, according to Akerman,
was Agatha Tyke, and its foundation has been attributed both to the
Rhodians and the Phoceans. Agatha is Greek for _good_, and _tyke_ meant
fortune or good luck: the effigy is described as being a bare head of
Diana to the right and without doubt Diana, or the divine Una, was
typified both by _ignis_ the fire, and by _agnes_ the lamb: in India
Agni is represented riding on a male _agnes_, and in Christian art the
Deity was figured as a ram.
[Illustration: FIG. 446.--Agni.]
[Illustration: FIG. 447.--From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]
At the Cornish town of St. Enns, St. Anns, or St. Agnes, the name of St.
Agnes--a paragon of maiden virtue--is coupled with a Giant Bolster, a
mighty man who is said to have held possession of a neighbouring hill,
sometimes known as Bury-anack: at the base of this hill exists a very
interesting and undoubtedly most ancient earthwork known as "The
Bolster".[832] As Anak meant _giant_,[833] Bury Anack was seemingly the
_abri_, _brugh_, _bri_, or fairy palace of this particular Anak, and if
we spell Bolster with an e he emerges at once into Belstar, the
_Beautiful Star_ who is represented in association with Agnes on page
719: probably the maligned Bolster of Cornwall had another of his abris
at Bellister Castle on the Tyne, now a crumbling mass of ruins.
Some accounts mention the Clerkenwell pool of Annis the Clear as being
that of Agnes the Clear: opposite the famous Angel of this neighbourhood
is Claremont Square, and about half a mile eastward is Shepherdess Walk;
that the Shepherdess of this walk was Diane, _i.e.,_ Sinclair the
counterpart of Adonis, the Shepherd of the twinkling stars, is somewhat
implied by Peerless Street, which leads into Shepherdess Walk. Perilous
Pool at Clerkenwell was sometimes known as Peerless Pool: it has been
seen that the hags or fairies were associated with this Islington
district which still contains a Paradise Passage, and of both "Perilous"
and "Peerless" I think the correct reading should be _peri lass_; it
will be remembered that the peris were quite familiar to England as
evidenced by the feathery clouds or "perry dancers," and the numerous
Pre Stones and Perry Vales.[834] In Red Cross Street, Clerkenwell, are
or were Deane's Gardens; at Clarence Street, Islington, the name Danbury
Street implies the existence either there or elsewhere of a Dan barrow.
Opposite Clare Market and the churches of St. Dunstan and St. Clement
Dane is situated the Temple of which the circular church, situated in
Tanfield Court,[835] is dedicated to St. Anne: St. Anne, the mother of
St. Mary, is the patron saint of Brittany, where she has been identified
with Ma or Cybele, the Magna Mater of Mount Ida; that Anna was the
consort of Joachim or the Joy King I do not doubt, and in her aspect of
a Fury or Black Virgin she was in all probability the oak-haunting Black
Annis of Leicestershire: "there was one flabby eye in her head". In view
of the famous round church of St. Mary the Virgin it is permissible to
speculate whether the "small circular hut of stone," in which Black Mary
of Black Mary's Hole was reputed to have dwelt on the banks of the
Fleet, Bagnigge or Holeburn (now Holborn) was or was not the original
Eye dun of the Pixy, or Big Nikke.
The emblems associated with the Temple and its circular church are
three; the Flying Horse or Pegasus; two men or _twain_ riding on a
single horse (probably the Two Kings) and the Agnus Dei: in the emblem
herewith this last is standing on a dun whence are flowing the four
rivers of Eden. The lamb was essentially an emblem of St. John who, in
Art, is generally represented with it; whence it is significant that in
Celtic the word for lamb is identical with the name Ion, the Welsh being
_oen_, the Cornish _oin_, the Breton _oan_, the Gaelic _uan_, and the
Manx _eayn_. That Sinjohn was always _sunshine_ and the _sheen_, never
apparently darkness, is implied by the Basque words _egun_ meaning
_day_, and Agandia or Astartea meaning Sunday. The Basque for _God_ is
_jainco_, the Ugrian was _jen_, and the Basque _jain_, meaning _lord_ or
_master_, is evidently synonymous with the Spanish _don_ or _donna_.
[Illustration: FIG. 448.--Divine Lamb, with a Circular Nimbus, not
Cruciform, Marked with the Monogram of Christ, and the
[Greek: A] and [Greek: Ô]. Sculptured on a Sarcophagus
in the Vatican. The earliest ages of Christianity.
From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]
In addition to St. Annes opposite St. Dunstans, and St. Clement Dane
there is a church of St. Anne in Dean Street, Soho: Ann of Ireland was
alternatively Danu, and it is clear from many evidences that the initial
_d_ or _t_ was generally adjectival. The Cornish for _down_ or dune is
_oon_, and Duke was largely correct when he surmised in connection with
St. Anne's Hill, Avebury: "I cannot help thinking that from Diana and
Dian were struck off the appellations Anna and Ann, and that the
_feriæ_, or festival of the goddess, was superseded by the fair, as now
held, of the saint. I shall now be told that the fane of the hunting
goddess would never have been seated on this high and bare hill, that
the Romans would have given her a habitation amidst the woods and
groves, but here Callimachus comes to my aid. In his beautiful Hymn on
Diana he feigns her to entreat her father Jupiter, 'also give me _all_
hills and mountains'."
Not only is Diana (Artemis) made to say "give me all hills and
mountains," but Callimachus continues, "for rarely will Artemis go down
into the cities": hence it is probable that all denes, duns, and downs
were dedicated to Diana. In Armenia, Maundeville mentions having visited
a city on a mountain seven miles high named Dayne which was founded by
Noah; near by is the city of Any or Anni, in which he says were one
thousand churches. Among the rock inscriptions here illustrated, which
are attributed to the Jews when migrating across Sinai from Egypt, will
be noticed the name Aine prefixed by a thau cross: the mountain rocks of
the Sinai Peninsular bear thousands of illegible inscriptions which from
time to time fall down--as illustrated--in the ravines; by some they are
attributed to the race who built Petra.[836] I am unable to offer any
suggestion as to how this Roman lettering AINE finds itself in so
curious a milieu.
[Illustration: FIG. 449.--View of Wady Mokatteb from the S. E. From
_The One Primeval Language_ (Forster, O.).]
Speaking of the bleak moorlands of Penrith (the _pen ruth?_), where are
found the monuments of Long Meg and of Mayborough, Fergusson testily
observes: "No one will now probably be found seriously to maintain that
the long stone row at Shap was a temple either of the Druids or of
anyone else. At least if these ancient people thought a single or even a
double row of widely-spaced stones stretching to a mile and a half
across a bleak moor was a proper form for a place to worship in, they
must have been differently constituted from ourselves[837]."
Indubitably they were; and so too must have been the ancient Greeks: the
far-famed Mount Cynthus, whence Apollo was called Cynthus, is described
by travellers as "an ugly hill" which crosses the island of Delos
obliquely; it is not even a mountain, but "properly speaking is nothing
but a ridge of granite". I am told that Glastonbury--the Avalon, the
Apple Orchard, the Sacred Eden of an immeasurable antiquity--is
disappointing, and that nowadays little of any interest is to be seen
there. "Donn's House," the gorgeous _bri_ or palace of generous Donn the
King of Faery, is in reality no better than a line of sandhills in the
Dingle Peninsula, Kerry; of the inspiring Tipperary I know nothing, but
can sympathise with the prosaic Governor of the Isle of Man, who a
century or so ago reported that practically every dun in Manxland was
crowned with a cairn which seemed "nothing but the rubbish of Nature
thrown into barren and unfruitful heaps".
"Miserable churl" sang the wily, enigmatic Bird, whose advice to the
rich villein has been previously quoted,[838] "when you held me fast in
your rude hand easy was it to know that I was no larger than a sparrow
or a finch, and weighed less than half an ounce. How then could a
precious stone three ounces in weight be hid in my body? When he had
spoken thus he took his flight, and from that hour the orchard knew him
no more. _With the ceasing of his song the leaves withered from the
pine, the garden became a little dry dust and the fountain forgot to
flow._"
Among the legends of the Middle Ages is one to the effect that
Alexander, after conquering the whole world determined to find and
compass Paradise. After strenuous navigation the envoys of the great
King eventually arrived before a vast city circled by an impenetrable
wall: for three days the emissaries sailed along this wall without
discovering any entrance, but on the third day a small window was
discerned whence one of the inhabitants put out his head, and blandly
inquired the purpose of the expedition; on being informed the
inhabitant, nowise perturbed, replied: "Cease to worry me with your
threats but patiently await my return". After a wait of two hours the
denizen of Heaven reappeared at the window and handed the envoys a gem
of wonderful brilliance and colour which in size and shape exactly
reproduced _the human eye_[839]. Alexander, not being able to make head
or tail of these remarkable occurrences, consulted in secret all the
wisest of the Jews and Greeks but received no suitable explanation;
eventually, however, he found an aged Jew who elucidated the mystery of
the hidden Land by this explanation: "O King, the city you saw is the
abode of souls freed from their bodies, placed by the Creator in an
inaccessible position on the confines of the world. Here they await in
peace and quiet the day of their judgment and resurrection, after which
they shall reign forever with their Creator. These spirits, anxious for
the salvation of humanity, and wishing to preserve your happiness, have
destined this stone as a warning to you to curb the unseemly desires of
your ambition. Remember that such insatiable desires merely end by
enslaving a man, consuming him with cares and depriving him of all
peace. Had you remained contented with the inheritance of your own
kingdom you would have reigned in peace and tranquillity, but now, not
even yet satisfied with the conquest of enormous foreign possessions and
wealth, you are weighed down with cares and danger."
The name of the aged Jew who furnished Alexander with this information
is said to have been Papas, or Papias: Papas was an alternative name for
the Phrygian Adonis, whence we may no doubt equate the old Adonis
(_i.e._, Aidoneus, or Pluto?) with the Aged Jew, or the Wandering Jew.
It has been seen that the legend of the Wandering Jew apparently
originated at St. Albans: in France _montjoy_ was a generic term for
herald, and I have little doubt that these Mountjoys were originally so
termed as being the denizens of some sacred Mount. There is a Mount Joy
near Jerusalem, and there was certainly at least one in France: among
the legends recorded in Layamon's _Brut_ is one relating to a Mont Giu
and a wondrous Star: "From it came gleams terribly shining; the star is
named in Latin, comet. Came from the star a gleam most fierce; at this
gleam's end was a dragon fair; from this dragon's mouth came gleams
enow! But twain there were mickle, unlike to the others; the one drew
toward France, the other toward Ireland. The gleam that toward France
drew, it was itself bright enow; to _Munt-Giu_ was seen the marvellous
token! The gleam that stretched right west, it was disposed in seven
beams."[840] It is probable that Chee Tor in the neighbourhood of
Buxton, Bakewell,[841] and Haddon Hall, was once just as bogie a Mount
as Munt-Giu: at Church_down_ in Gloucester is a Chosen Hill, which
apparently was sacred to Sen Cho, and this hill was presumably the
original church of Down; all sorts of "silly traditions" are said to
hang around this spot, and the natives ludicrously claim themselves to
be "the Chosen" People.
[Illustration: FIG. 450.--From _The Everyday Book_ (Hone, W.).]
Chee Tor at Buxton overlooks the river Wye, a name probably connected
with _eye_, and with numerous _Ea_mounts, _Ey_tons, _Ea_tons, _How_dens,
etc.: that Eton in Bucks was an Eye Dun is inferable from the _ad
montem_ ceremonies which used until recently to prevail at Salt
Hill.[842] In British, _hy_ or _ea_, as in Hy Breasil, Batters_ea_,
Chels_ea_, etc., meant an island, and the ideal Eden was usually
conceived and constructed in island form: if a natural "Eye Town" were
not available it was customary to construct an artificial one by running
a trench around some natural or artificial barrow. The word _eye_ also
means a shoot, whence we speak of the eye of a potato, and the standard
Eyedun seems always to have possessed an eye of eyes in the form either
of a tree, a well, or a tower: it was not unusual to surmount the Beltan
fire or Tan-Tad with a tree; the favourite phare tree was a fir tree, in
Provence the Yule log was preferably a pear tree. It was anciently
supposed that the earth was an island established upon the floods, and
Homer preserves the belief of his time by referring to Oceanus as a
river-stream:--
And now, borne seaward from _the river stream_
_Of the Oceanus_, we plow'd again
The spacious Deep, and reach'd th' Ææan Isle,
Where, daughter of the dawn, Aurora takes
Her choral sports, and whence the sun ascends.[843]
According to Josephus, the Garden of Eden "was watered by one river
which ran round about the whole earth,[844] and was parted into four
parts," and this immemorial tradition was expressed upon the circular
and sacred cakes of ancient nations which were the forerunners of our
Good Friday's Hot Cross Buns. Associated with the pagan Eucharists here
illustrated[845] will be noted Eros--whose name is at the base of
_eucharist_--also what seemingly is the Old Pater. In Egypt the cross
cake was a hieroglyph for "civilised land," and was composed of the
richest materials including milk and honey, the familiar attributes of
Canaan or the Promised Land. The remarkable earthwork cross at Banwell
has no doubt some relation to the Alban cross on our Easter _bun_, Greek
_boun_, and the so-termed Pixies' Garden illustrated in Fig. 433(A),
probably was once permeated by the same phairy imagination as perceived
Paradise in the dusty "Walls of Heaven," "Peter's Orchard," and
"Johanna's Garden".
[Illustration: FIG. 451.--Love-Feast with Wine and Bread. Relief in
the Kircher Museum at Rome, presumably pagan. After
Roller, pl. LIV. 7.]
[Illustration: FIG. 452.--A Pagan Love-Feast. Now in the Lateran
Museum. From Roller, _Les Cata. de Rome_, pl. LIV. The
pagan character is assured by the winged Eros at the
left.]
The name Piccadilly is assumed to have arisen because certain buns
called piccadillies were there sold: the greater likelihood is that the
bun took its title from Piccadilly. This curious place-name, which
commemorates the memory of a Piccadilly Hall, is found elsewhere, and
is probably cognate with Pixey lea, _Poukelay_, and the legend PIXTIL,
etc. Opposite Down Street, Piccadilly, or Mayfair, there are still
standing in the Green Park the evidences of what may once have been
tumuli or duns, and the Buckden Hill by St. Agnes' Well in Hyde Park
may, as is supposed, have been a den for bucks, or, as is not more
improbable, a dun sacred to Big Adon:[846] leading to Buck Hill and St.
Agnes' Well there is still a pathway marked on the Ordnance map Budge
Walk, an implication seemingly that Bougie, or Bogie, was not unknown in
the district. We have connoted Rotten Row of _Hyde_ Park with Rotten Row
Tower near Alnwick: this latter is situated on _Aidon_ Moor. By _Down_
Street, Mayfair, is Hay Hill, at the foot of which flowed the Eye Brook,
and this beck no doubt meandered past the modern Brick Street, and
through the Brookfield in the Green Park where the fifteen joyful
heydays of the Mayfair were once celebrated: whether the Eye Brook
wandered through Eaton Square--the site of St. Peter's Church--I do not
know, nor can I trace whether or not the "Eatons" hereabout are merely
entitled from Eaton Hall in the Dukeries. Each Eaton or island ton,
certainly every sacred island, seems to have been deemed a "central boss
of Ocean: that retreat a goddess holds,"[847] and this central boss
appears to have been conceived indifferently or comprehensively as
either a Cone, a Pyramid, a Beehive, or a Teat. Wyclif, in his
translation of the Bible, refers to Jerusalem as "the totehill Zyon,"
and there is little doubt that all teathills were originally cities or
sites of peace: according to Cyprien Roberts: "The first basilicas,
_placed generally upon eminences_, were called Domus Columbæ, dwellings
of the dove, that is, of the Holy Ghost. They caught the first rays of
the dawn, and the last beams of the setting sun."[848] Everywhere in
Britain the fays were popularly "gentle people," "good neighbours," and
"men of peace": a Scotch name for Fairy dun or High Altar of the Lord of
the Mound used to be--_sioth-dhunan_, from _sioth_ "peace," and _dun_ "a
mound": this name was derived from the practice of the Druids "who were
wont occasionally to retire to green eminences to administer justice,
establish peace, and compose differences between contending parties. As
that venerable order taught a _saogle hal_, or World-beyond-the-present,
their followers, when they were no more, fondly imagined that seats
where they exercised a virtue so beneficial to mankind were still
inhabited by them in their disembodied state".[849]
In Cornwall there is a famous well at Truce which is legendarily
connected with Druidism:[850] Irish tradition speaks of a famous Druid
named Trosdan; St. Columba is associated with a St. Trosdan;[851] at St.
Vigeans in Scotland there is a stone bearing an inscription which the
authorities transcribe "Drosten,"[852] probably all the dwellers on the
Truce duns were entitled Trosdan,[853] and it is not unlikely that the
romantic Sir Patrise of Westminster was originally Father Truce. It has
already been noted that _treus_ was Cornish for cross, that children
cross their fingers as a sign of fainits or truce, and there is very
little doubt that cruciform earthworks, such as Shanid, and cruciform
duns such as Hallicondane in Thanet were truce duns. The Tuatha de
Danaan, or Children of Donn, who are supposed to have been the
introducers of Druidism into Ireland, were said to have transformed into
fairies, and the duns or raths of the Danaan are still denominated
"gentle places".[854] That the ancient belief in the existence of
"gentle people" is still vivid, is demonstrated beyond question by the
author of _The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries_, who writes (1911): "The
description of the Tuatha de Danaan in the 'Dialogue of the Elders' as
'sprites or fairies with corporeal or material forms, but endued with
immortality,' would stand as an account of prevailing ideas as to the
'good people' of to-day".[855] The generous Donn, the King of Faery, is
obviously Danu, or Anu, or Aine, the Irish goddess of prosperity and
abundance, for we are told that well she used to cherish the circle of
the gods.[856] At Knockainy, or the _Hill of Ainy_, Aine, whose name
also occurs constantly on Gaulish inscriptions,[857] was until recent
years worshipped by the peasants who rushed about carrying burning
torches of hay: that Aine was Aincy, or _dear little aine_, is inferred
by the alternative name of her dun Knockain_cy_: "Here," says Mr.
Westropp, "a cairn commemorates the cult of the goddess Aine, of the
god-race of the Tuatha De Danaan. She was a water-spirit, and has been
seen, half raised out of the water, combing her hair. She was a
beautiful and gracious spirit, 'the best-natured of women,' and is
crowned with meadow-sweet (_spiræa_), to which she gave its sweet smell.
She is a powerful tutelary spirit, protector of the sick, and connected
with the moon, her hill being sickle-shaped, and men, before performing
the ceremonies, used to look for the moon--whether visible or not--lest
they should be unable to return."[858] By St. Anne's in Dean Street,
Soho, is Dansey Yard, where probably _dancing_ took place, and dins of
every sort arose.
The original sanctuary at Westminster was evidently associated with a
dunhill which seems to have long persisted for Loftie, in his _History
of Westminster_, observes: "The _hillock_ on which we stand is called
Thorn Ey".[859] Tothill Street, Westminster, marks the site of what was
probably the teat hill of Sir Patrise: the tothills being centres of
neighbourly intercourse a good deal of tittle-tattle doubtless occurred
there, and from the toothills watchmen _touted_, the word _tout_[860]
really meaning peer about or look out: "How beautiful on the Mounds are
the feet of Him that bringeth _tidings_--that publisheth Peace".[861] It
has been supposed that certain of the Psalms of David were addressed not
to the Jewish Jehovah, but to the Phoenician Adon or Adonis, and it is
not an unreasonable assumption that these hymns of immemorial antiquity
were first sung in some simple Eyedun similar to the wattled pyreum at
Kildare, or that at Avalon or Bride Eye.
The oldest sanctuary in Palestine is a stone circle on the so-called
Mount of God, and in Britain there is hardly a commanding eminence which
is not crowned with a Carn or the evidences of a circle. The Cities of
Refuge and the Horns of the Altar, so constantly mentioned in the Old
Testament, may be connoted with the fact that in an island fort at Lough
Gur, Limerick, were discovered "two ponderous horns of bronze," which
are now in the British Museum: it will be remembered that at Lough Gur
is the finest example of Irish stone circles. But stone circles are
probably much more modern than the reputed founding of St. Bride's first
monastery at Kildare. We are told that Bride the Gentle, the Mary of the
Gael, who occasionally hanged her cloak upon a lingering sunbeam, had a
great love of flowers, and that once upon a time when wending her way
through a field of _clover_[862] she exclaimed, "Were this lovely plain
my own how gladly would I offer it to the Lord of Heaven and Earth". She
then begged some sticks from a passing carter, staked and wattled them
into a circle, and behold the Monastery was accomplished. The character
of this simple edifice reminds one of "that structure neat," to which
Homer thus alludes:--
Unaided by Laertes or the Queen,
With tangled thorns he fenced it safe around,
And with contiguous stakes riv'n from the trunks
Of solid oak black-grain'd hemm'd it without.[863]
The circle of Mayborough originally contained two cairns which are
suggestive of Andromache's "turf-built cenotaph with altars twain": the
great bicycle within a monocycle at Avebury is trenched around, and the
summit of the circumference is still growing thickly with "tangled
thorns". On the Wrekin there is a St. Hawthorn's Well; of "Saint"
Hawthorn nothing seems to be known, and I strongly suspect that he was
originally a sacred thorn or monument bush. The first _haies_ or hedges
were probably the hawthorn or haw hedges around the sacred Eyes, and the
original _ha-has_ or sunk ditches were presumably the water trenches
which surrounded the same jealously-guarded Eyes: and as _ha-ha_ is also
defined as "an old woman of surprising ugliness, a caution," it may be
suggested that the caretakers or beldames[864] of the awful Eyes were,
like some of the vergers and charwomen of the present day, not usually
comely.
[Illustration: FIG. 453.--Trematon, Cornwall.]
[Illustration: FIG. 454.--Chun Castle.]
The iris-form of the Eye was shown in the ground plan _ante_, page 534,
and that this design was maintained even for ages after the first
primitive Rock or Tower had given place to statelier edifices might be
shown by many more evidences than the design here illustrated: the
_maton_ of this Trematon Castle was in all probability the same Maiden
as the Shee of Maiden Castle, Maiden Paps, and the Maiden Stane.
Trematon, in Cornwall, was the site of a Stannary Court, whence arose
the proverbial localism "Trematon Law," and there are peculiarities
about the Castle which merit more than passing attention. Rising
majestically amid the surrounding foliage the keep is described as
standing on the summit of a conical mound: Baring-Gould characterises
the aspect as being that of a pork pie, whence its windowless walls
would seem to bear a resemblance to the massive masonry at Richborough.
The Richborough walls now measure 10 feet 8 inches in thickness and
nearly 30 feet in height; those at Trematon are stated as being 10 feet
thick and 30 feet high. Like Maiden Castle at Dorchester, Trematon is of
an oval form and it was formerly divided into apartments, but as there
are no marks of windows they would appear to have been lighted from the
top.[865] The gateway consisted of three strong arches, and the general
arrangements would seem to have resembled those at Chun where, as will
be noted, there were three outer chambers encircling about a dozen inner
stalls. Chun is cyclopean unmortared stonework; Maiden Castle is
earthwork; Richborough is supposedly Roman masonry: of Trematon little
is known that may be deemed authentic, but it is generally believed to
have been originally erected prior to the Conquest: as, however, the
Anglo-Saxons were incapable of masonry it would seem that Trematon might
be assigned to an antiquity not less than that of Richborough Castle
which it so curiously parallels. With the various Maiden Lanes of
King's Cross, Covent Garden, and elsewhere may be connoted the Mutton
Lane of Hackney, which was famous for a bun house which once rivalled
that at _Cheynes_ Walk, Chelsea: Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, is a
continuation of Chandos Street, and it will probably prove that the
surname Chandos is ultimately traceable to _Jeanne douce_. In Caledonia
_douce_ is not necessarily feminine, and the King John tradition, which
unaccountably lingered around Canonbury,[866] may be connoted with the
John Street and Mutton Hill of Clerkenwell. The sheep or mutton is the
proper emblem of St. John, and perhaps the same King John may be further
identified with the Goodman of the adjacent Goodman's Fields. We have
seen that in Caledonia the gudeman was the devil, whence it becomes
interesting to find near Brown's Wood, Islington, stood once a "Duval's
(vulgarly called Devil's) Lane".[867]
St. Columba alludes affectionately to--
My _derry_, my little oak grove,
My dwelling and my little cell.
The Eye dun illustrated _ante_, page 584, which is described as the
strangest, most solitary, most prehistoric-looking of all our motes, is
known as _Trow_dale Mote; St. Columba is associated with _Tiree_; he is
also said to have been imprisoned at _Tara_, and to have written the
book _Durrow_ with his own hand: there is thus some ground for tracing
the Mote, Maton, Maid or Maiden, _alias_ St. Columba, to Droia or Troy.
That the dove was pre-eminently a Cretan emblem is well known, and that
all derrys or trees were sacred Troys or sanctuaries is further implied
by the ancient meaning of the adjective _terribilis_, _i.e._, sacred:
thus we find Westminster or Thorn Ey alluded to by old writers as a
_locus terribilis_,[868] and it would seem that any awe-inspiring or
awful spot was deemed _terrible_ or sacred.
In the Celtic Calendar there figures a St. Maidoc or Aidan: Maidoc is
_maid high_, and I am afraid St. Aidan was occasionally "a romping girl"
or _hoiden_. One does not generally associate Pallas Athene with
revelry, and it is difficult to connect with gaiety the grim example of
Athene which the present proprietors of _The Athenæum_ have adopted as
their ideal; yet, says Plato, "Our virgin Lady, delighting in the sports
of the dance, thought it not meet to dance with empty hands; she must be
clothed in full armour, and in this attire go through the dance. And
youths and maidens should in every respect imitate her example,
honouring the goddess, both with a view to the actual necessities of war
and to the festivals." Hoiden or hoyden meant likewise a gypsy--a native
of Egypt "the Land of the Eye"--and also a heathen: Athene, who was
certainly a heathen maid, may be connoted with Idunn of Scandinavia, who
keeps the apples which symbolise the ever-renewing and rejuvenating
force of Nature.[869] Tradition persistently associates Eden with an
apple, although Holy Writ contains nothing to warrant the connection:
similarly tradition says that Eve had a daughter named Ada: as Idunn was
said to be the daughter of Ivalde we may equate Idunn, the young and
lovely apple-maid, with Ada or Ida, and Ivalde, her mother with the Old
_Wife_, or Ive Old.[870] In an earlier chapter we connected Eve with
_happy_, Hob, etc., and there is little doubt that Eve, "the Ivy Girl,"
was the Greek Hebe who had the power of making old men young again, and
filled the goblets of the gods with nectar.
Idunn, "the care-healing maid who understands the renewal of youth,"
was, we are told, the youthful leader of the _Idunns_ or fairies: in
present-day Welsh _edyn_ means a _winged one_, and _ednyw_ a spirit or
essence. It is said that from the manes of the horses of the Idunns
dropped a celestial dew which filled the goblets and horns of the heroes
in Odin's hall; it is also said that the Idunns offer full goblets and
horns to mortals, but that these, thankless, usually run away with the
beaker after spilling its contents on the ground. There must be an
intimate connection between the legend of the fair Idunns, and the fact
that at the Caledonian Edenhall, on the river Eden, is preserved an
ancient goblet known as The Luck of Edenhall:--
If this glass do break or fall
Farewell the luck of Edenhall.
The river Eden flows into the Solway Firth, possibly so named because
the Westering Sun must daily have been seen to create a golden track or
sun-way over the Solway waters. Ptolemy refers to Solway Firth as Ituna
Estuarium, so that seemingly Eden or Ituna may be equated not only with
the British rivers Ytene and Aeithon, but also with the Egyptian Aten.
According to Prof. Petrie, the cult of Aten "does not, so far, show a
single flaw in a purely scientific conception of the source of all life
and power upon earth. The Sun is represented as radiating its beams on
all things, and every beam ends in a hand which imparts life and power
to the king and to all else. In the hymn to the Aten, the universal
scope of this power is proclaimed as the source of all life and action,
and every land and people are subject to it, and owe to it their
existence and allegiance. No such grand theology had ever appeared in
the world before, so far as we know, and it is the forerunner of the
later monotheist religions while it is even more abstract and impersonal
and may well rank as a scientific theism."
[Illustration: FIG. 455.--British. From Evans]
Egyptian literature tells of a King Pepi questing for the tree of life
in company with the Morning Star carrying a spear of Sunbeams.
Thy rising is beautiful, O living Aton, Lord of Eternity,
Thou art shining, beautiful, strong,
Thy love is great and mighty.
Thy rays are cast into every face
Thy glowing hue brings life to hearts
When thou hast filled the two Lands with thy love
O God, who himself fashioned himself,
Maker of every land.
Creator of that which is upon it,
Men, all cattle, large and small.
All trees that grow in the soil,
They live when thou dawnest for them.
Thou art the mother and the father of all that thou has made.
Yet this resplendent Pair or Parent was also addressed by the Egyptians
as the Sea on High and invoked--
Bow thy head, decline thy arms, O Sea!
The Maiden Morning Star or Stella Maris was imagined as refreshing the
heart of King Pepi to life: "She purifies him, she cleanses him, he
receives his provision from that which is in the Granary of the Great
God, he is clothed by the Imperishable Stars." The intimate connection
between Candia and Egypt, the "Land of the Eye" is generally admitted,
and as it is an etymological fact that the letters _m_ and _n_ are
almost invariably interchangeable (indeed if language begins with voice
and ends with voice it is impossible to suppose that two such similar
sounds could have maintained their integrity), it is probable that
Candia is radically related to Khem, which seemingly was the most
ancient name for Egypt. The celebrated "Maiden Bower," by Mount
Pleasant, Dunstable, is believed to be the modern equivalent of magh
_din_ barr, pronounced mach _dim_ barr, and it is decoded as _magh_, a
level expanse, _din_, a hill or hill fortress, and _barr_, a summit: I
note this derivation--which certainly cannot be applied to the Maiden
Stane--as it equates _din_ with _dim_, in which connection it is
noteworthy that in France and Belgium _Edinburgh_ becomes _Edimbourg_.
In all probability therefore Adam, Master of Eden, was originally Adon
or "the Lord," and Notre _Dame_ of France was equivalent to the
_Madonna_ of Italy.
[Illustration: FIG. 456.--From _The Correspondences of Egypt_
(Odhner).]
In Caledonia the moothills were known alternatively as _Dom_hills, and
in the "Chanonry of Aberdeen" was a dun known as Donidon or Dunadon:
_doom_ still means fate or judgment; in Scots Law giving sentence was
formerly called "passing the doeme"; the judge was denominated the
Doomster, and the jury the Doomsmen. In the Isle of Man the judges are
termed Deemsters, and in Scandinavia stone circles are known as Doom
rings: the Hebrew Dan meant _judgment_, and the English Dinah[871] is
interpreted as _one who judges_; in the Isle of Man the Laws are not
legal until they have been proclaimed from the _Tyn_wald Hill. That the
Domhills of Britain have largely preserved their physical condition is
no doubt due to the doom frequently inflicted on malefactors that they
should carry thither a certain quantity of earth and deposit it.[872]
In Europe there are numerous megalithic monuments known popularly as
"Adam's Graves," and near Draycott at Avebury the maps mark an Adam's
Grave. On the brow of a hill near Heddon (Northumberland) is a
trough-like excavation in the solid rock known as the Giant's Grave;
there is a similar Giant's Grave near Edenhall by Penrith, and a
neighbouring chasm entitled The Maiden's Step is popularly connected
with Giant Torquin: this Torquin suggests Tarquin of Etruria, between
which and Egypt there was as close if not a closer connection than that
between Candia and Khem.
At Maidstone, originally Maidenstone, there is a _Moat_ Park: in Egypt
_Mut_ was one of the names given to the Queen of Heaven, or Lady of the
Sky: Mut was no doubt a variant of Maat, or Maht, the Egyptian Goddess
of Truth, for in the worship of the Egyptian Aton "Truth" occupied a
pre-eminent position, and the capital of Ikhnaton, the most conspicuous
of the Aton-worshipping kings, was called the "Seat of Truth".
[Illustration: FIG. 457.--Maat.]
[Illustration: FIG. 458.--Mut.]
Surmounting the Maat here illustrated is a conspicuous _feather_ which
we have already connoted with _feeder_ and _fodder_. Maat, the giver of
provision from that which is in the granary of the Great God, is thus
presumably allied with _meat_, also to _mud_,[873] or liquid earth. The
word _mud_ is not found in Anglo-Saxon, but is evidently the
Phoenician _mot_, and it would be difficult for modern science to add
very much to the prehistoric conception of the Phoenicians. According
to their great historian Sancaniathon: "The beginning of all things was
a condensed, windy air, or a breeze of thick air, and a chaos turbid and
black as Erebus. Out of this chaos was generated Môt, which some call
Ilus" (_mud_), "but others the putrefaction of a watery mixture. And
from this sprang all the seed of the creation, and the generation of the
universe.... And, when the air began to send forth light, winds were
produced, and clouds, and very great defluxions and torrents of the
heavenly waters."[874] It is probable that _Sancaniathon_, the
Phoenician sage to whom the above passage is attributed, was radically
_Iathon_ or _Athene_.
We have connoted the Egyptian sun-god Phra with Pharoah, or Peraa, who
was undoubtedly the earthly representative of the same Fire or Phare as
was worshipped by the Parsees, or Farsees of Persia: the Persian
historians dilate with enthusiasm on the justice, wisdom, and glory of a
fabulous Feridoon whose virtues acquired him the appellation of the
Fortunate, and it is probable that this Feridoon was the Fair Idoon
whose palace, like the Fairy Donn's, was located on some humble fire
dun, or peri down. The name Feridoon, or Ferdun (the Fortunate),[875] is
translated as meaning _paradisiacal_: Ferdusi is etymologically
equivalent to _perdusi_, which is no doubt the same word as _paradise_,
and we can almost visualise the term _feridoon_ transforming itself into
_fairy don_. Nevertheless by one Parthian poet it was maintained--
The blest Feridoon an angel was not,
Of musk or of amber, he formed was not;
By justice and mercy good ends gained he,
Be just and merciful thou'lt a Feridoon be.[876]
In Germany, Frei or Frey meant a privileged place or sanctuary: in
London such a sanctuary until recently existed around the church of St.
Mary Offery, or Overy (now St. Saviours, Southwark), and in a subsequent
chapter we shall consider certain local traditions which permit the
equation of St. Mary Overy, and of the Brixton-Camberwell river _Effra_,
with the Fairy _Ovary_ of the Universe. The Gaelic and Welsh for an
opening or _mouth_ is _aber_, whence Aberdeen is held to mean the mouth
of the Don: but at Loch_aber_ or Loch _Apor_ this interpretation cannot
apply, and it is not improbable that Aberdeen on the river Don was
primarily a Pictish Abri town--a Britain or Prydain. As the capital of
Caledonia is Edinburgh or Dunedin, it may be suggested that the whole of
Caledonia stern and wild was originally a _Kille_, or church of Don.
At Braavalla, in Osturgothland, there are remains of a marvellous "stone
town," whence we may assume that this site was originally a Braavalla,
or _abri valley_: the chief of the Irish Barony of Barrymore who was
entitled "The Barry" is said to have inhabited an enchanted brugh in one
of the Nagles Hills. Near New Grange in Ireland there is a remarkable
dolmen known locally as the house or tomb of Lady "Vera, or Birra":[877]
five miles distant is Bellingham, and I have little doubt that every
fairy dun or fairy town, the supposed local home of Bellinga, the Lord
Angel or the Beautiful Angel, was synonymously a "Britain"; that Briton
and Barton are mere variants of the same word is evident from such
place-names as Dumbarton, originally Dunbrettan.
[Illustration: FIG. 459.--New Grange, Ireland.
Fig. I _The Barrow at New Grange_
Fig. II _Section of the Tumulus_
Fig. III _Section of the Gallery & Dome_]
[Illustration: FIG. 460--Kit's Coty, near Maidstone.
[_To face page 751._ ]
It has been seen that Prydain--of whom it was claimed that before his
coming there was little ordinance in these Islands save only a
superiority of oppression--was the reputed child of King Aedd: Aedd was
one of the titles of Hu, the first of our national Three Pillars, and he
was probably identical with Aeddon, a name which, says Davies, "I think
was a title of the god himself": the priests of Hu were apparently
termed Aeddons, whence like the Mountjoys of France we may assume they
were the denizens of the Aeddon duns: inquiry will probably establish
one of these sanctuaries at Haddington; at Addington (Domesday
_Edin_tone) in Kent there are the remains of one still standing. With
the pagan Aeddons may be connoted the Celtic Saint Aidan, Æden, or
Aiden, whose name is associated with Lindis_farne_, also the St. Aidan,
or Maidoc of _Ferns_, who among other prodigies is recorded as having
driven to and from Rome in twenty-four hours. At _Farn_ MacBride in
Glencolumkille, there are some cromlechs which exactly resemble in plan
the house of Lady Vera, or Birra, at New Grange:[878] at Evora, in
_Por_tugal, situated on bleak heathland, is a similar monument which
Borrow described as the most perfect and beautiful of its kind he had
ever seen: "It was circular, and consisted of stones immensely large and
heavy at the bottom, which towards the top became thinner, having been
fashioned by the hand of art to something like the shape of _scallop
shells_.... Three or four individuals might have taken shelter within
the interior in which was growing a small thorn tree."[879] The scallop
shell, like the cockle and all coquilles, was obviously an emblem of
Evora, the Ovary, the Aber, the opening.
The _Bona dea_ of Candia was represented with a headdress in the form of
a cat; we shall connote this animal (German _kater_) with St. Caterina
or Kate, the immaculate pure one, and it is not unnoteworthy that the
Kentish _Kit's_ coty, near Maidstone, _vide_ the photograph here
reproduced, contains what might be a rude much-weathered image of the
sacred _cat_, lioness, or _kit_ten:[880] In Caledonia is a famous
Cat[881] Stane, and the Duchess of Sutherland still bears the honorary
title "Lady of the Cat".[882] The word _kitt_en resolves into Great
Itten: the New Forest used to be known as the Forest of Ytene,[883] and
I do not think that the great British Forest of Dean has any real
connection with the supposition that the Danes may have taken up their
residence there: _Dean_ was almost a generic name for forest, and we
meet with it from Arden to the Ardennes.[884]
For an explication of the word _dawn_ Skeat observes: "see day"; it is,
however, probable that _dawn_ was the little or young Don or Adon. By
the Welsh the constellation Cassiopeaia is known under the title of
Don's chair. That the Irish Don was Truth is probable from the statement
"His blue dome (the sky) was an infallible weather-glass, whence its
name the Hill of Truth".[885]
According to the Edda,[886] a collection of traditions which have been
assigned variously by scholars to Norway, Greenland, and the British
Isles, the world was created by the sons of Bor, and in the beginning
the gods built a citadel in Ida-plain and an age of universal innocence
prevailed. Situated on Cockburn Law in Berwickshire--a wick or fortress
of Ber upon which stands the largest of all the brochs--is a prehistoric
circle known as Edina or Wodens Hall. The English name Edana or Edna,
defined as meaning _perfect happiness_ or _rich gift_, is stated to be a
variant of Ida or Ada: in Hebrew the name Adah means _beauty_, and Ada,
the lovely daughter of Adam, is probably Eda, the "passionately
beloved"[887] Breaton princess of Hibernia, or Ma Ida of Tyburnia or
Marylebone.
The Garden of Eden has somewhat unsuccessfully, I believe, been located
in Mesopotamia: the Jews doubtless had their Edens even though
Palestine is arid, and the authorities translate the name Adam as having
meant _red earth_: according to early Rabbinical writers Adam was a
giant; he touched the Arctic pole with one hand and the Antarctic with
the other.[888] I have here noted but a handful of the innumerable Edens
in Britain which includes five rivers of that name:[889] that the Lady
of Britain was Prydain, Brython, or _pure Athene_, _i.e._, Wisdom, is a
well-recognised tradition, for she is conventionally represented as
Athene. In Greece the girl-name Theana meant _Divine Intelligence_,[890]
and Ida was interpreted _far seeing_: in Troy the goddess of the city,
which originally stood upon a dun hill, was Athene, and the innumerable
owl-headed emblems found there by Schliemann were her sign: "Before the
human form was adopted her (Athene's) proper symbol was the Owl; a bird
which seems to surpass all other creatures in acuteness and refinement,
of organic perception; its eyes being calculated to discern objects
which to all others are enveloped in darkness; its ear to hear sounds
distinctly when no other can perceive them at all, and its nostrils to
discriminate effluvia with such nicety that it has been deemed prophetic
from discovering the putridity of death even in the first stages of
disease."[891]
We have noted the existence of some exclusively British fairies known as
Portunes: among the Latins Portunas was a name of Tri_ton_ or Nep_tune_:
the Mother of the British Portunes might be termed Phortuna, or, as we
should now write the word, Fortuna, and the stone circle at Goodaver in
Cornwall might be described as a Wheel of Good Phortune: the Hebrew for
_fortune_ is _gad_, and it is probable that the famous Gadshill, near
Rochester, was at one time a God's Hill; from Kit's Coty on the heights
above Rochester it is stated that according to tradition a continuous
series of stone monuments once extended to Addington where are still the
remains of another coty or cromlech.
There are in England numerous Addingtons or Edintones, and at at least
two of these are Druidic remains: the Kentish Addington, near Snodland
and Kit's Coty, is dedicated to St. Margaret, and the church itself is
situated on a rise or dun. Half a mile from Bacton in Hereford is a
small wood known as St. Margaret's Park, and in the centre of this is a
cruciform mound, its western arm on the highest ground, its eastern on
the lowest: this cruciform mound was described in 1853 as being 15 feet
at base,[892] a familiar figure which may be connoted with the statement
in _The Golden Legend_ that St. Margaret was fifteen years of age. In
addition to the cruciform mount at St. Margaret's Park, Bacton, there
are further remains of archæologic interest: about 100 years ago nine
large yew trees which were surrounding it--one of gigantic size--were
felled to the ground, and my authority states that its venerable
antiquity was evident from the decayed stumps of _oaks_ still visible
felled ages ago together with more recent ones.[893] In addition to the
cross in this prehistoric Oak grove of the Lady Margaret there are three
curious cavities, two of them circular, the third oval or egg-shaped:
the ancient veneration for the _oeuf_, or egg, has degenerated to the
Easter egg, and in Ireland the Dummy's Hill,[894] associated with
egg-trundling may, I think, be equated with Donna or the Dame.
The Cretan Britomart in Greek was understood to mean _sweet maiden_; in
Welsh _pryd_ meant precious, dear, fair, beautiful; Eda of Ireland was
"passionately beloved," and to the Britons the sweet maiden was
inferentially Britan_nia_, the _new_ pure Athene, Ma Ida the Maid or
Maiden whose character is summed up in the words _prude_, _proud_,
_pride_, and _pretty_. In Ireland we may trace her as Meave, _alias_
Queen Mab, and the headquarters of this Maiden were either at Tara or at
Moytura: the latter written sometimes Magh Tuireadh, probably meant the
plain of Troy, for there are still all the evidences here of a
megalithic Troy town. The probabilities are that Stanton Drew in
Somerset, like Drewsteignton in Devon, with which tradition connects St.
Keyna, was another Dru stonetown for here are a cromlech, a logan stone,
two circles, some traces of the Via Sacra or Druid Way and an ancient
British camp: in Aberdeen there are circles at _Tyre_bagger, Dun_adeer_,
and at Deer.
Among other so-called monuments of the Brugh at Moytura recorded in the
old annalists are "the Two Paps of the Morrigan," "The Mound of the
Morrigan," _i.e_., the Mound of the Great Queen, also a "Bed of the
Daughter of Forann":[895] Forann herself was doubtless the Hag whose
weirdly-sculptured chair exists at Lough Crew in Meath: _Meath_ was
esteemed the _mid_, _middle_, or _midst_, of Ireland, and here as we
have seen existed the central stone at Birr. There is a celebrated Hag's
Bed at Fermoy, doubtless the same Hag as the "Old Woman of Beare," whose
seven periods of youth necessitated all who lived with her to die of old
age: this Old Woman's grandsons and great grandsons were, we are told,
tribes and races, and in several stories she appears to the hero as a
repulsive hag who suddenly transforms herself into a beautiful Maid. At
Moytura--with which tradition intimately associates the Children of
Don--is a cairn called to this day the "cairn of the One Man": with this
One Man we may connote Un Khan or Prester John, of whose mystic Kingdom
so many marvellous legends circulated during the Middle Ages.
Among the miracles attributed to St. Patrick is one to the effect that
by the commandment of God he "made in the earth a great circle with his
staff": this might be described as a _byre_, _i.e._, an enclosure or
bower, and we may connote the word with the stone circle in
Westmoreland, at Brackenbyr, _i.e._, the byre of Brecon, Brechin, or the
Paragon? The husband of Idunn was entitled Brage, whose name _inter
alia_ meant King: Brage was the god of poetry and eloquence; a
superfluity of prating, pride, and eloquence is nowadays termed _brag_.
The burial place of St. Patrick, St. Bride, and Columba the Mild, is
alleged to be at Duno in Ulster: "In Duno," says _The Golden Legend_,
"these three be buried all in one sepulchre": the word Duno is _d'uno_,
the divine Uno, and the spot was no doubt an Eden of "the One Man":
Honeyman[896] is a fairly common English surname, and although this
family may have been dealers in honey, it is more probable that they are
descendants of the One Man's ministers: in Friesland are megalithic
Hunnebeds, or Giant's Beds, and I have little doubt that the
marvellously scooped stone at Hoy in the Hebrides[897]--the parallel of
which existed in Egypt, the Land of the Eye--was originally a Hunne Bed
or _grotte des fees_.
"Of Paradise," says Maundeville, "I cannot speak for I have not been
there": nevertheless this traveller--who was not necessarily the arch
liar of popular assumption--has recorded many artificial paradises which
he was permitted to explore: the word _paradise_ is the Persian
_pairidaeza_, which means an enclosure, or place walled in: it is thus
cognate with our _park_, and the first parks were probably sanctuaries
of the divine Pair. Nowhere that I know of is the place-name
Paradise[898] more persistent than in Thanet or Tanet, a name supposed
by the authorities to be Celtic for _fire_: at the nose of the North
Foreland old maps mark Faire Ness, and I have little doubt that Thanet,
"by some called Athanaton and Thanaton,"[899] was originally sacred to
Athene. In Suffolk is a Thingoe, which is understood to mean "how, or
mound of the _thing_, or provincial assembly": the chief Cantian _thing_
or folkmoot was probably held at the Dane John at Cantuarbig or
Durovernon; the word _think_ implies that Athene was a personification
of Reason or Holy Rhea, and the equivalence of the words _remercie_ and
_thank_, suggest that all dons, donatives, and donations were deemed to
have come from the Madonna or Queen Mercy, to whom thanks or
remerciements were rendered by the utterance of her name. In the North
of England there are numerous places named Unthank, which seemingly is
ancient Thank: the Deity is still thanked for _meat_, _i.e._, _fare_, or
_forage_; _free_, according to Pearsall, "comes from an Aryan root
meaning _dear_ (whence also our word _friend_), and meant in old
Teutonic times those who are _dear_ to the head of the household--that
is connected with him by ties of friendship, and not slaves, or in
bondage".[900] The word _dear_, French _adore_, connects _tre_ or abode
with Droia or Troy: yet the _Sweet Maiden_ of Crete could at times show
dour displeasure, and one of her best known representations is thus
described: "The pose of the little figure is dignified and firm, the
side face is even winning, but the eyes are fierce, and the outstretched
hands holding the heads of the snakes are so tense and show such
strength that we instinctively feel this was no person to be played
with".[901] The connection at Edanhall of The Maiden's Step with Giant
Torquin establishes a probability that the Maid or the Maiden was either
the Troy Queen or the Eternal Queen, or _dur queen_, the hard Queen, at
times a little dragon, oftener a _dear Queen_, _i.e._, Britomart, the
Sweet Maiden, or Eda, the passionately beloved, the _Adorée_. "Bride,
the _gentle_" is an epithet traditionally applied to St. Bride, St.
Brigit, or St. Brig; in Welsh, _brig_ and _brigant_ mean _tip top_ or
_summit_, and these terms may be connoted with the Irish _brig_ meaning
pre-eminent power, influence, authority, and high esteem. At Chester, or
Deva, there has been found an inscription to the "Nymph-Goddess Brig,"
and at Berrens in Scotland has been found an altar to the Goddess of
Brigantia, which exhibits a winged deity holding a spear in one hand,
and a globe in the other.
In the British Museum is a coin lettered CYNETHRYTH REGINA: this lady,
who is described as the widow of Offa, is portrayed "in long curls,
behind head long cross": assuredly there were numerous Queen
Cynethryths, but the original Cynethryth was equally probably Queen
Truth, and in view of the fact that the motto of Bardic Druidism was
"the Truth against the world," we may perhaps assume that the Druid was
a follower of Truth or Troth.
In the opinion of the learned Borlase the sculpture illustrated on page
485 represents the six progressive orders of Druidism contemplating
Truth, the younger men on the right viewing the Maiden draped in the
garb of convention, the older ones on the left beholding her nude in her
symbolic aspect as the feeder of two serpents: it is not improbable that
Quendred, the miraculous light-bearing Mother of St. Dunstan, was a
variant of the name Cynethryth, at times Queen Dread, at times Queen
Truth.
[Illustration: FIG. 461.--Britannia, A.D. 1919.
_By permission of the Proprietors of "Punch"._]
The frequent discovery of coins--Roman and otherwise--within cromlechs
such as Kit's Coty and other sacred sites appears to me to prove
nothing in respect of age, but rather a survival of the ancient
superstition that the fairies possessed from time immemorial certain
fields which could not be taken away or appropriated without gratifying
the pixy proprietors by a piece of money:[902] the land-grabber is no
novelty, nor seemingly is conscience money. That important battles
occurred at such sites as Moytura and Braavalla is no argument that
those fantastic Troy Towns or Drewsteigntons were, as Fergusson
laboriously maintained, monuments to commemorate slaughter. According to
Homer--
Before the city stands a lofty mound,
In the mid plain, by open space enclos'd;
Men call it Batiaea; but the Gods
The tomb of swift Myrinna; muster'd _there
The Trojans and Allies their troops array'd_.[903]
Nothing is more certain than that with the exception of a negligible
number of conscientious objectors, a chivalrous people would defend its
Eyedun to the death, and that the last array against invaders would
almost invariably occur in or around the local Sanctuarie or Perry dun.
It is a wholly unheard of thing for the British to think or speak of
Britain as "the Fatherland": the Cretans, according to Plutarch, spoke
of Crete as their Motherland, and not as the Fatherland: "_At first_,"
says Mackenzie, "the Cretan Earth Mother was the _culture deity_ who
instructed mankind ... in Crete she was well developed before the
earliest island settlers began to carve her images on gems and seals or
depict them in frescoes. She symbolised the island and its social life
and organisation."[904]
FOOTNOTES:
[820] _Irish Folklore_, p. 32.
[821] _Irish Folklore_, p.78
[822] Heath, F. R. and S., _Dorchester_, p. 40.
[823] Dorchester stands on the "Econ Way"
[824] _Irish Folklore_, p. 79.
[825] In _Crete the Forerunner of Greece_, Mr. and Mrs. Hawes
remark that Browning's great monologue corresponds perfectly
with all we know of the Minoan goddess--
I shed in Hell o'er my pale people peace
On earth, I caring for the creatures guard
Each pregnant yellow wolf and fox-bitch sleek,
And every feathered mother's callow brood,
And all that love green haunts and loneliness.
[826] _Iliad_, xv., 175.
[827] _London_, p. 59.
[828] _Irish Folklore_, p. 34.
[829] Gomme, Sir L., _The Topography of London_, ii., 215.
[830] See Cynethryth _post_, p. 761.
[831] _Golden Legend_, iii., 188.
[832] Hunt, R., _Popular Romances of the West of England_, p. 73.
[833] Cf. Numbers xiii. 33.
[834] Adjacent to Perry Mount, Perrivale, Sydenham, are Adamsrill
road, Inglemere road, _Allen_by road, and _Ex_bury road.
[835] This Tanfield Court supposedly takes its name from an
individual named Tanfield. Wherever the original Tanfield was
it was doubtless the scene of many a bonfire or Beltan
similar to the joyous "Tan Tads," or "Fire Fathers" of
Brittany.
[836] _Cf_. Forster, Rev. C., _The One Primeval Language_, 1851.
[837] _Rude Stone Monuments_, p. 131.
[838] "His feathers were all ruffled for he had been grossly
handled by a glove not of silk, but of wool, so he preened
and plumed himself carefully with his beak."
[839] _Folklore_, xxix., No. 3, p. 195.
[840] P. 165.
[841] At Bickley in Kent there is a _Shaw_field Park, which may be
connoted with the Bagshaw's Cavern at Buxton.
[842] By Chee Tor is Mon_sal_ Dale, and we may reasonably connote
_sal_ and "_salt_" with Silbury and Sol: into the waters of
the Solway Firth flows the river Eden or Ituna, and doubtless
the Edinburgh by Salisbury Crags is older than any Saxon
Edwin or Scandinavian Odin. (Since writing I find it was
originally named Dunedin, _cf._ Morris Jones, Sir G.,
_Taliesin_.)
[843] _Odyssey_, Book I., 67.
[844] Chapter I.
[845] From an article by Dr. Paul Carus in _The Open Court_.
[846] The fine megalith now standing half a mile distant at "The
Den" was transported from Devonshire about a century ago--no
doubt with the idea of tripping some unwary archæologist.
[847] _Odyssey_, Book I., 67.
[848] _Cours d'Hieroglyphique Chretienne_, in _L'Universite
Catholique_, vol. vi., p. 266.
[849] _Cf._ Hazlitt, W. C., _Faiths and Folklore_, i., 222.
[850] Hunt, p. 328.
[851] Deer, near Aberdeen, is said to have derived its name from
_deur_, the Gaelic for _tear_, because St. Drostan shed tears
there. The monkish authority in the Book of Deer says:
"Drostan's tears came on parting with Columcille". Said
Columcille, "Let Dear be its name henceforward".
[852] Fergusson, p. 273.
[853] The Tuttle family may similarly be assigned to one or other
of the innumerable Toothills.
[854] _Irish Folklore_, p. 31.
[855] Wentz, W. Y. Evans, p. 404.
[856] In Irish _aine_ means _circle_.
[857] Westropp, T. J., _Proc. of Royal Irish Academy_.
[858] _Cf._ _Folklore_, xxix., No. 2, p. 159.
[859] Quoted from Besant's _Westminster_.
[860] Besant supposes that Tothill Street took its name from
watermen touting there for fares.
[861] Ps. lii. 7.
[862] In Persia the Shamrakh was held sacred as being emblematical
of the Persian triads.
[863] _Odyssey_, xiv., 12.
[864] Skeat comments upon the word _hag_ as "perhaps connected with
Anglo-Saxon _haga_, a hedge enclosure, but this is
uncertain": this authority's definition of a _ha-ha_ is as
follows: "Ha-ha, Haw-haw, a sunk fence (F.). From F. _haha_
an interjection of laughter, hence a surprise in the form of
an unexpected obstacle (that laughs at one). The French word
also means an old woman of surprising ugliness, a 'caution'."
The Celts were conspicuously chivalrous towards women, and I
question whether they burst into haw-haws whensoever they met
an ill-favoured old dame. As to the ha-has, or "unexpected
obstacles," Cæsar has recorded that "the bank also was
defended by sharp stakes fixed in front, and stakes of the
same kind fixed under the water were covered by the river":
if, then, the amiable victim who unexpectedly stumbled upon
this obstacle chuckled ha-ha! or haw-haw! as he nursed his
wounded limbs, the ancient Britons must have possessed a far
finer sense of humour than has usually been assigned to them.
[865] Stockdale, F. W. L., _Excursions Through Cornwall_, 1824, p.
116.
[866] Gomme, Sir L., _The Topography of London_, ii., 222.
[867] _Ibid._, ii., 216.
[868] Besant, W., _Westminster_, p. 20.
[869] Rydberg, _Teutonic Mythology_, p. 118.
[870] In the Kentish neighbourhood of Preston, Perry-court,
Perry-wood, Holly Hill, Brenley House, and Oversland is an
_Old Wives Lees_, and Britton Court Farm.
[871] A London cockney refers to his sweetheart as his _donah_.
[872] See "Archæologia" (from _The Gentleman's Magazine_), i., 286.
[873] The English moot hills are sometimes referred to as _mudes_
or _muds_, Johnson, W., _Byways_, p. 67.
[874] Quoted from Donnelly, I., _Ragnarok_.
[875] Moody, S., _What is Your Name?_ p. 266.
[876] Anon, _Secret Societies of the Middle Ages: History of the
Assassins_.
[877] Fergusson, J., _Rude Stone Monuments_, p. 231.
[878] Fergusson, p. 523.
[879] _Ibid._, p. 390.
[880] Almost immediately above the cromlech is Dan's Hill, and in
close neighbourhood are Burham, Borough Court, Preston Hall,
Pratling Street, and Bredhurst, _i.e._, Bred's Wood. That
Bred was _San Od_ is possibly implied by the adjacent
_Snod_hurst and _Snod_land. At Sinodun Hill in Berkshire,
Skeat thinks _Synods_ may have once been held. The Snodland
neighbourhood in Kent abounds in prehistoric remains.
[881] The authorities assume that the _cat_ is here cath, the
Gaelic for _war_. It might equally well be _cad_, the Gaelic
for _holy_: in the East a _jehad_ is a Holy War.
[882] Lang, A., _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, i., 72.
[883] _A New Description of England_, 1724.
[884] Sharon Turner informs us, on the authority of Cæsar, Strabo,
and Diodorus Siculus, that the Britons "cleared a space in
the wood, on which they built their huts and folded their
cattle; and they fenced the avenues by ditches and barriers
of trees. Such a collection of houses formed one of their
towns." _Din_ is the root of _dinas_, the Welsh word in
actual use for a _town_.
[885] Westropp, T. J., _Proceedings of Royal Irish Academy_, p.
165.
[886] With _Edda_, a general term for the rules and materials for
verse-making, may be connoted our _ode_.
[887] According to the original Irish of the story-teller,
translated and published for the first time in 1855, Conn,
the Consort of Eda, "was a puissant warrior, and no
individual was found able to compete with him either on land
or sea, or question his right to his conquest. The great King
of the West held uncontrolled sway from the island of Rathlin
to the mouth of the Shannon by sea, and as far as the
glittering length by land. The ancient King of the West,
whose name was Conn, was good as well as great, and
passionately loved by his people. His Queen (Eda) was a
Breaton (British) princess, and was equally beloved and
esteemed, because she was the great counterpart of the King
in every respect; for whatever good qualification was wanting
in the one, the other was certain to indemnify the omission.
It was plainly manifest that heaven approved of the career in
life of the virtuous couple; for during their reign the earth
produced exuberant crops, the trees fruit ninefold
commensurate with their usual bearing, the rivers, lakes and
surrounding sea teemed with abundance of choice fish, while
herds and flocks were unusually prolific, and kine and sheep
yielded such abundance of rich milk that they shed it in
torrents upon the pastures; and furrows and cavities were
filled with the pure lacteal produce of the dairy. All these
were blessings heaped by heaven upon the western districts of
Innes Fodhla, over which the benignant and just Conn swayed
his sceptre, in approbation of the course of government he
had marked out for his own guidance. It is needless to state
that the people who owned the authority of this great and
good sovereign were the happiest on the face of the wide
expanse of earth. It was during his reign, and that of his
son and successor, that Ireland acquired the title of the
'happy Isle of the West' among foreign nations. Con Mor and
his good Queen Eda reigned in great glory during many years."
[888] Wood, E. J., _Giants and Dwarfs_, p. 11. According to
Maundeville in Egypt "they find there also the apple-tree of
Adam which has a bite on one side".
[889] There is a conspicuously interesting group of names around
the river Eden in Sussex. At Edenbridge is Dencross, and in
close neighbourhood Ide Hill, Dane Hill, Paxhill Park, Brown
Knoll, St. Piers Farm, Hammerwood, Pippenford Park, Allen
Court, Lindfield, Londonderry, and Cinder Hill. With
Broadstone Warren and Pippinford Park it is noteworthy that
opposite St. Bride's Church, Ludgate Hill, is Poppins Court
and Shoe Lane: immediately adjacent is a Punch Tavern, whence
I think that Poppins was Punch and _Shoe_ was Judy. The gaudy
_popinjay_, at which our ancestors used to shoot, may well
have stood in Poppins Court: a representation of this
brilliant parrot or parrakeet is carved into one of the
modern buildings now occupying the site.
[890] Moody, S., _What is Your Name_? p. 257.
[891] Knight, R. Payne, _The Symbolic Language of Ancient Art and
Mythology_, p. 128.
[892] "Archæologia" (from _The Gentleman's Magazine_), p. 270.
[893] "Archæologia" (from _The Gentleman's Magazine_), p. 270.
[894] "When I was a child I would no more have thought of going out
on Easter morning without a real Easter egg than I would have
thought of leaving my stocking unsuspended from the foot of
my bed on Christmas Eve. A few days before Easter I used to
go out to the park, where there were a great many whin
bushes, and gather whinblossoms, which I carried home to my
mother, who put two eggs in a tin, one for me and one for my
sister, and added the whinblossoms and water to them, and set
them to boil together until the eggs were hard and the shells
were stained a pretty brown hue.
"On Easter Monday my sister and I would carry our eggs to a
mound in the park called 'The Dummy's Hill,' and would trundle
them down the slope. All the boys and girls we knew used to
trundle their eggs on Easter Monday. We called it 'trundling'.
The egg-shell generally cracked during the operation of
'trundling,' and then the owner of it solemnly sat down and ate
the hard-boiled egg, which, of course, tasted very much better
than an egg eaten in the ordinary way. 'The Dummy's Hill' was
sadly soiled with egg-shells at the end of Easter Monday
morning.
"My uncle, who was a learned man, said that this custom of
'trundling' eggs was a survival of an old Druidical rite. It
seems to me to be queer that we in the North of Ireland should
still be practising that ancient ceremony when English children
should have completely forgotten it, and should think of an
Easter egg, not as a real thing laid by hens and related to the
ancient religion of these islands, but as a piece of
confectionery turned out by machinery and having no ancient
significance whatever."--Ervine, St. John, _The Daily
Chronicle_, 4th April, 1919.
[895] Fergusson, J., _Rude Stone Monuments_, p. 191.
[896] The surname Honeywell found at Kingston implies either there
or somewhere a Honeywell. There are several St. Euny Wells in
Cornwall.
[897] It measures 36 feet x 18 feet 9 inches, see _ante_, p. 9.
[898] At Margate are Paradise Hill, Dane Park, Addington Street
leading to Dane Hill, and Fort Paragon: at Ramsgate is also a
Fort Paragon, and a four-crossed dun called Hallicondane.
There used to be a Paradise near Beachy (Bougie, or Biga Head
(?)): by Broadstairs or Bridestowe which contains a shrine to
St. Mary to which all passing vessels used to doff their
sails, is Bromstone, and a Dane Court by Fairfield, all of
which are in St. Peter's Parish. By the Sister Towers of
Reculver are Eddington, Love Street, Hawthorn Corner, and
Honey Hill: in Thanet, Paramour is a common surname. By
Minster is Mount Pleasant and Eden Farm: by Richborough is
Hoaden House and Paramore Street. To Reculver as to
Broadstairs passing mariners used customarily to doff their
sails:--
Great gods, whom Earth and Sea and Storms obey,
Breathe fair, and waft us smoothly o'er the main.
Fresh blows the breeze, and broader grows the bay,
And on the cliffs is seen Minerva's fane.
We furl the sails, and shoreward row amain
Eastward the harbour arches, scarce descried,
Two jutting rocks, by billows lashed in vain,
Stretch out their arms the narrow mouth to hide.
Far back the temple stands and seems to shun the tide.
--_Æneid_, Bk. III., lxviii.
[899] _A New Description of England and Wales_, 1724, p. 84.
[900] _The English Language_, p. 141.
[901] Mr. and Mrs. Hawes, _Crete the Forerunner of Greece_, p. 123.
[902] Hazlitt, W. Carew, _Faiths and Folklore_, i., 222.
[903] _Iliad_, ii., 940.
[904] _Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe_, pp. 70, 190. The
italics are mine.