Archaic England Part 26

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 176.--From _A Guide to Avebury_ (c.o.x, R.

Hippesley).]

In addition to the famous earthwork at _Abury_ in Wilts there is a less familiar one at _Eubury_ in Gloucesters.h.i.+re: at Redbourne in Herts is a "camp" known as "_Aubrey's_" or "_Aubury_," whence it would seem that _abri_, the generic term for a shelter or refuge, might also have originated in Britain.[355] The colossal _abri_ at Abury, or Aubrey, consisted of two circles within a greater one, and at the head of the avenue facing due east it will be noticed that Aubrey, the seventeenth-century antiquary, records twin barrows situated on what is now _Over_ton Hill.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 177.--Avebury "restored".]

Lying in the sea a mile or so off the Cornish town of St. Just are a _pair_ of conical _ber_gs or _pyr_amids known as the Brisons, and opposite these is a little bay named Priest's Cove. There is no known etymology for Brisons, but it has been suggested that these remarkable burgs were once used as prisons: probably they were, for the stocks were frequently placed at the church door, and without doubt the ancient holy places served on necessity as prisons as well as Courts of St. Just. In the vicarage garden at St. Just was found a small bronze bull, and as the Phoenicians have been washed out of reckoning we may a.s.sign this idol either to the Britons who, until recently wa.s.sailed under the guise of a bull termed "the Broad,"[356] or to the Bronze-age Cretans, among whom the Bull or Minotaur was sacred. Perhaps instead of "Cretans"

it would be more just to say h.e.l.lenes, for the headland opposite the Brisons was known originally as Cape Helenus, and there are the ruins of St. h.e.l.len's Chapel still upon it.

h.e.l.len, the mythical ancestor from whom the h.e.l.lenes attributed their national descent, may possibly be recognised not only as the Long Man or Lanky Man of country superst.i.tion but also in Parth_olon_ or Barth_olon_, the alleged son of Terah (Troy?), who is said to have landed with an expedition at Imber Scene in Ireland within 300 years after the Flood. Partholon, _Father Good Holon_ (?) or _Pure Good Holon_ (?) is said to have had three sons "whose names having been conferred on localities where they are still extant their memories have been thus perpetuated so that they seem still to live among us". This pa.s.sage, quoted from Silvester Giraldus,[357] who was surnamed Cambrensis because he was a Welshman, permits the a.s.sumption that a similar practice prevailed also elsewhere, and if in the time of Giraldus (1146) place-names had survived since the Flood, there is no reason to suppose that they have since ceased to exist.

h.e.l.len was the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, who correspond to the Noah and Alpha of our British mythology: after floating for nine days during the Flood the world was said to have been re-peopled by these twain, _two-one_, giant or _joint_ pair, who created men by casting stones over their shoulders. In the Christian emblem here ill.u.s.trated the divine Pere or Parent, is being a.s.sisted by an angel, _peri_, or phairy, and it is possible that the Prestons of Britain were at one time Pyrrha stones.

As the syllable _zance_ of Penzance is always understood as _san_, holy, possibly the two Brisons may be translated into _Pair Holy_: with the Greek Pyrrha-Flood story may be connoted Peirun the name of the Chinese Noah.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 178.--An Angel a.s.sisting the Creator. Italian Miniature of the XIII. Cent. From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

The church of St. Just was originally known as Lafroodha, which is understood to have meant _laf_ church and _rhooda_,[358] "a corruption of the Saxon word rood or cross". Rhooda is, however, much older than Saxon, _rhoda_ is the Greek for rose, and the Rhodian Greeks used the rose as their national symbol. The immediate surroundings of the Dane John at Durovernum are known to this day as Rodau's Town, and we shall consider Rhoda at greater length in subsequent chapters.

In the church of Roodha or St. Just there is standing a so-called "Silus stone" which was discovered in 1834, during alterations to the chancel: this object has carved upon it SILUS HIC JACET, the Greek letters [Greek: Ch.R.], and a crosier, whence it has been surmised that Silus was a priest or pastor. Mr. J. Harris Stone inquires: "Who was Silus? No one has yet discovered," and he adds: "It is a reasonable conjecture that he was one of those early British bishops who preached the Gospel before the mission of Augustine."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 179.--Iberian coin of Rhoda, now Rosas. From Akerman.]

I agree that he was British, but I am inclined to place him still farther back, and to a.s.sign his name at any rate to the Selli, under which t.i.tle the priests of Epirus were known. The Selli were pre-eminently the custodians at Dodona, whence Homer's reference:--

Great King, Dodona's Lord, Pelasgian Jove, Who dwell'st on high, and rul'st with sov'reign sway, Dodona's wintry heights; where dwell around Thy Sellian priests, men of unwashen feet, That on the bare ground sleep.

The Spartan courage and simplicity of the British papas is sufficiently exemplified by their voyages to Iceland and to the storm-tossed islands of the Hebrides, where they have left names such as Papa Stour, Papa Westray, etc. One may a.s.sume that the _selli_ of Dodona--as probably also the _salii_ or augurs of Etruria--lived originally in _cells_ either single or in cl.u.s.ters which became the foundations of later monasteries: Silus may thus be connoted with _solus_, and the word _celibate_ suggests that the _selli_ led _soli_tary lives.

Close to Perry Court, in Kent, is Selgrove, and the numerous Selstons, Seldens, Selsdens, Selwoods, and Selhursts, were in all probability hills, woods, denes, and groves where the Selli congregated, and celebrated the benefits and perfections of the Solus or Alone. Near Birmingham is Selly Oak, which may be connoted with _allon_, the Hebrew for oak, and with the fact that the oak groves of the _selli_ at Dodona were universally renowned. The Scilly Islands and Selsea or Sels Island in Hamps.h.i.+re may be connoted with Selby or Selebi, the abode of the _selli_ (_?_), in Yorks.h.i.+re, now Selby Abbey. In Devons.h.i.+re is _Zeal_ Monachorum, and judging by what was accomplished we may define the _selli_ as _zeal_ous and celestial-minded souls. In Welsh _celli_ means a _grove_; in Latin _sylva_ means a _wood_; it is notorious that the Druids wors.h.i.+pped in groves, and it is not unlikely that Silbury Hill was particularly the selli's hill or barrow. On the other hand the pervasiveness of _Bury_ at Abury as exemplified in the immediately adjacent _Bar_bury Castle, _Bore_ham Downs, _Brad_enstoke, _Over_ton Hill, and Oli_vers_ Castle, makes it likely that the _Sil_ of Silbury may have been the Sol of Solway and Salisbury Crags.

In Ireland our soft _cell_ is _kil_, whence Kilkenny, Kilbride, and upwards of 1400 place-names, all meaning _cell of_, or _holy to_ so and so. The enormous prevalence of this hard _kil_ in Ireland renders it probable that the word carried the same meaning in many other directions, notably at Cal_abria_ in Etruria: the wandering priests of Asia Minor and the near East were known as Calanders, a word probably equivalent to Santander, and as has been seen every Welsh Preston was a Llanandras or church of Andrew.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 180.--From _The Celtic Druids_ (Higgens, G.).]

At Haverfordwest there is a place named Berea, upon which the Rev. J. B.

Johnston comments: "Welsh Non-conformists love to name their chapels and villages around them so": among the Hebrew Pharisees there existed a mystic _haburah_ or _fellows.h.i.+p_;[359] and the Welsh word _Berea_, probably connected with _abri_, meaning a sanctuary, is a.s.sociated by Mr. Johnston with the pa.s.sage in Acts xvii., _i.e._: "And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and _Silas_ by night into Berea". That Paul preached from an _abri_, or Mount Pleasant, is implied by the statement that he stood in the midst of Mars Hill, whence he admonished his listeners against their altars to the Unknown G.o.d. It was traditionally believed that St. Paul preached not only to the people of Cornwall, but also to Londoners from Parliament Hill, where a prehistoric stone still stands.

That h.e.l.len was once a familiar name at Abury is implied by _Lans_down, _Lyn_ham, and perhaps Calne or _uch alne_ the _Great Alone_. Both the river Colne in Lancas.h.i.+re and the village of Calne near Abury are attributed as possibly to _calon_, the Welsh for heart or centre: the word _centre_ is radically San Troy, as also is _saintuary_ or _sanctuary_. Stukeley speaks particularly of Overton Hill as being the sanctuary, but the entire district was traditionally sacrosanct, and it was popularly supposed that reptiles died on entering the precincts: of the Hyperboreans, Diodorus expressly records they had consecrated a large territory.

The village of Abury was occasionally spelled Avereberie, at other times Albury, and with this latter form may be connoted Alberich,[360] the German equivalent to Auberon. Chilperic, a variant of Alberich, is stated by Camden to be due to a German custom of prefacing certain names with _ch_ or _k_, a contracted form of _king_: I was unaware of this fact when first formulating my theory that an initial _K_ meant _great_.

It is considered that Alberich meant _Elf rich_, and the official supposition is that the French Alberon, or Auberon, was made in Germany: according to Keightley, the German Albs or Elves have fallen from the popular creed, but in most of the traditions respecting them we recognise benevolence as one of the princ.i.p.al traits of their character.[361]

Alberich may, as is generally supposed, have meant Albe_rich_, or _Albe wealthy_, but _brich_, _brick_, _brook_, etc., are fundamental terms and are radically _ber uch_. Brightlingsea--of which there are 193 variants of spelling--is p.r.o.nounced by the natives Bricklesea, and there are innumerable British Brockleas, Brixtons, Brixhams, Brockhursts, etc.

Among the many unsolved problems of archaeology are the Hebridean _brochs_, which are hollow towers of dry built masonry formed like truncated cones. These erections, peculiar to Scotland, are found mainly in the Hebrides, and there is a surprising uniformity in their design and construction. Among the most notable brochs are those situated at Burray, Borrowston, Burrafirth, Burraness, Birstane, Burgar, Brindister, Birsay and in _Ber_wicks.h.i.+re, at c.o.c.kburnlaw, and the remarkable recurrence of _Bur_, or _Burra_, in these place-names is obviously due to something more than chance.

At _Brook_land Church in Kent--within a few miles of Camber Castle--a triplex conical belfrey or _berg_ of wooden construction is standing, not on the tower, but on the ground in the immediate neighbourhood of the sacred edifice. The amazing cone-tomb ill.u.s.trated on page 237 is that of Lars Porsenna, which means Lord Porsenna, and the bergs or conical pair of _Brison_ rocks lying off Priest's Cove at St. Just may be connoted not only with the word parson but with Parsons and Porsenna.

Malory, in _Morte d'Arthur_, mentions an eminent Dame Brisen, adding that: "This Brisen was one of the greatest enchantresses that was at that time in the world living."[362]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 181 and 182.--From _Notes on the Structure of the Brochs_ (Anderson, J.). Proceedings of the Scotch Society of Antiquaries.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 183.--From _Symbolism of the East and West_ (Aynsley, Mrs. Murray).]

There is a famous broch at Burrian in the Orkneys; near St. Just are the parishes of St. Buryan and St. Veryan, both of which are identified with an ancient Eglosberrie, _i.e._, the _eglise_, close, or cloister of Berrie. A berry is a diminutive egg, and in some parts of the country gooseberries are known as deberries.[363] _De berry_ seemingly means _good_ or _divine_ berry, and the _pick_ly character of the gooseberry bush no doubt added to the sanct.i.ty: from the word goosegog _gog_ was seemingly once a term equivalent to _berry_; a goose is often termed a _barn_acle, and the phantom dog--sometimes a bear--ent.i.tled the _bargeist_ or _barguest_ was no doubt a popular degradation of the Hound of Heaven. Two hounds in leash are known as a _brache_, which is the same word as brace, meaning pair: in connection with the supposition that the Brisons were originally prisons may be noted that barnacles were primarily a pair of curbs or handcuffs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 184.--From _The Correspondences of Egypt_ (Odhner C. T.).]

From the typical ground plan of two brochs here given it will be seen that their form was that of a wheel, and it is possible that the f.l.a.n.g.ed spokes of these essential _abris_ were based upon the svastika notion of a rolling, running trinacria such as that of Hyperea and of the Isle of Man. Brochs are in some directions known as _peels_, and at Peel Castle, in the Isle of Man, legend points to a grave 30 yards long as being that of Eubonia's first king: a curious tradition, says Squire, credits him with three legs, and it is these limbs arranged like the spokes of a wheel that appear on the arms of the Island.[364]

In connection with the giant's grave at Peel may be connoted the legend in Rome that St. Paul was there beheaded "at the Three Fountains". The exact spot is there shown where the milk spouted from his apostolic arteries, and where moreover his head, after it had done preaching, took three jumps to the honour of the Holy Trinity, and at each spot on which it jumped there instantly sprang up a spring of living water which retains to this day a plain and distinct taste of milk.[365] This story of three jumps is paralleled in Leicester by a legend of Giant Bell who took three mighty leaps and is said to be buried at Belgrave:[366] Bell is the same word as Paul and Peel.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 185.--Iberian. From Akerman.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 186.--From _An Essay on Ancient Coins, Medals, and Gems_ (Walsh, R.).]

The Lord of the Isle of Man is said to have swept swift as the spring wind over land and sea upon a horse named Splendid Mane: the Mahommedans tell of a milk-white steed named _Al Borak_, each of whose strides were equal to the furthest range of human vision: in Chaucer's time English carmen addressed their steeds as _brok_, and in Arabic _el boraka_ means _the blessing_. _Broch_ is the same word as _brooch_, and upon ancient brooches a _brok_, as in Fig. 187, was sometimes represented: the magnificent ancestral brooches of the Highland families will be found on investigation frequently to be replete with ancient symbolism, the centre jewel representing the All-seeing Eye. _Broch_ or _broca_ means a pin or spike, and _p.r.i.c.k_ means dot or speck: _p.r.i.c.k_, like _brok_, also meant horse, and every one is familiar with the gallant knight who "p.r.i.c.ks," _i.e._, rides on horseback o'er the plain. _p.r.i.c.k_ and _brok_ thus obviously stand in the same relation to each other as Chil_peric_ and Al_beric_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 187.--From the British Museum's _Guide to the Antiquities of the Early Iron Age_.]

The phairy first king of the Isle of Man was regarded as the special patron of sea-faring men, by whom he was invoked as "Lord of Headlands,"

and in this connection Berry Head at Brixham, Barras Head at Tintagel, and Barham or Barenham Down in Kent are interesting. The southern coast of Wales is sprinkled liberally with _Bru_ place-names from St. Bride's Bay wherein is Ramsey Island, known anciently as _ynis y Bru_, the Isle of Bru, to Burry river and Barry Isle next Sulli Isle (the _selli_ isle?).

Aubrey or Auberon may be said almost to pervade the West and South of England: at Barnstaple or Barn Market we meet with High Bray, river Bray, Bratton, Burnham, Braunton, _Berryn_arbor, the Brendon Hills, Paracombe and _Baggy_ Point; in the Totnes neighbourhood are _Big_bury, Burr Island, Beer Head, Berry Head, Brans...o...b.., Brans.h.i.+ll, and Prawle Point, which last may be connoted with the rivers Barle, Bark, and Brue.

It is perhaps noteworthy that the three spots a.s.sociated until the historic period with flint-knapping[367] are _Beer_ Head in Devon, _Pur_fleet near Barking, and _Bran_don in Suffolk.

Totnes being the traditional landing-place of Bru it is interesting to find in that immediate district two Prestons, a Pruston, Barton, Bourton or Borton, Brookhill, Bructon, Brixham, Prescott, Parmount, Berry Pomeroy, Pres...o...b..rry and Preston Castle or Shandy's Hill.[368]

Ebrington suggests an _ington_ or town of the children of Ebr; Alvington may be similarly connected with Alph, and Ilbert and Brent seemingly imply the _Holy Ber_ or _Bren_. The True Street by Totnes may be connoted with the adjacent Dreyton, and Bosomzeal Cross in all probability once bore in the centre, or bogel, the boss which customarily forms the eye of Celtic crosses. Hu being the first of the three deddu, tatu, or pillars, the term Totnes probably as in s...o...b..ryness meant Tot_nose_, and the adjacent Dodbrooke, Doddis...o...b..eigh, and Daddy's Hole may all be connoted with the Celtic _tad_, _dad_, or _daddy_. With the Doddi of Doddis...o...b..eigh or _Doddy's Valley Meadow_, may be connoted the gigantic and commanding Cornish headland known as Dodman. The Hollicombe by Preston was presumably the holy Coombe, and Halwell, at one time a Holy Well: in this neighbourhood of Kent's Cavern and Kent's Copse are Kingston and Okenbury; at Kingston-on-Thames is Canbury Park, and it is extremely likely that the true etymology of Kingston is not _King's Town_ but _King Stone_, _i.e._, a synonymous term for Preston and the same word as Johnstone.

If as now suggested Bru was _pere Hu_ we may recognise Hu at Hoodown which, at Totnes, where it occurs, evidently does _not_ mean a low-lying spit of land but, as at Plymouth Hoe or Haw, implied a hill. In view of the preceding group of local names it is difficult to a.s.sume that some imaginative Mayor of Totnes started the custom of issuing his proclamations from the so-called Brutus Stone in Fore Street merely to flatter an obscure Welsh poet who had vain-gloriously uttered the tradition that the British were the remnants of Droia: it is far more probable that the Mayor and corporation of Totnes had never heard of Taliesin, and that they stolidly followed an immemorial wont.

With the church of St. Just or Roodha, and with the Rodau of Rodau's Town neighbouring the Danejohn at Canterbury or Durovernum, we shall subsequently connote Rutland or Rutaland and the neighbouring Leicester, anciently known as Ratae. The highest peak in Leicesters.h.i.+re is Bardon Hill, followed, in order of alt.i.tude, by "Old John" in Bradgate Park, Bredon, and Barrow Hill.

Adjacent to Ticehurst in Suss.e.x--a hurst which is locally attributed to a fairy named Tice--may be found the curious place-names Threeleo Cross and Bewl Bri. These names are the more remarkable being found in the proximity of Priestland, Parson's Green, Barham, and Heart's Delight.

Under the circ.u.mstances I think Threeleo Cross must have been a tri holy or three-legged cross, and that Huggins Hall, which marks the highest ground of the district, was Huge or High King's Hall: in close proximity are Queen's Street, Maydeacon House, Grovehurst, and Great Old Hay.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 188.--From _A Guide to Avebury_ (c.o.x, R.

Hippesley).]

With _Bredon_ in Leicesters.h.i.+re, a district where the tradition of a three-jumping giant, as has been seen, prevailed, may be connoted the prehistoric camp, or _abri_, of Bradenstoke, and that Abury itself was regarded as a vast _trinacria_ is probable from the fact that in the words of a quite impartial archaeologist: "The _triangle_ of downs surrounding Avebury may be considered the hub of England and from it radiates the great lines of hills like the spokes of a wheel, the Coltswolds to the north, the Mendips to the west, the Dorsets.h.i.+re Hills to the south west, Salisbury Plain to the south, the continuation of the North and South Downs to the east, and the high chalk ridge of the Berks.h.i.+re Downs north-east to the Chilterns."[369]

In this quotation I have ventured to italicise the word _triangle_ which idea again is recurrent in the pa.s.sage: "The Downs round Avebury are the meeting-place of three main watersheds of the country and are the centre from which the great lines of hills radiate north-east, and west through the Kingdom. Here at the junction of the hills we find the largest prehistoric temple in the world with Silbury, the largest artificial earth mound in Europe, close by."[370]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 189.--British. From Evans.]

The a.s.sertion by Stukeley that Avebury described the form of a circle traversed by serpentine stone avenues has been ridiculed by less well-informed archaeologists, largely on the ground that no similar erection existed elsewhere in the world. But on the British coin here ill.u.s.trated a cognate form is issuing from the eagle's beak, and in Fig.

190 (a Danish emblem of the Bronze Age), the Great Worm or Dragon, which typified the Infinite, is supporting a wheel to which the designer has successfully imparted the idea of movement.