Archaic England Part 39

The Jews or Judeans of to-day are known indifferently as either Jews or Hebrews, and it would seem that Jou was "Hebrew," or, as the Italians write the word, Ebrea: the French for Jew is _juif_, evidently the same t.i.tle as Jove or Jehovah.

In Fig. 302, Jehovah is rather surprisingly represented as a _puer_ or boy: as already mentioned, the Eros of Etruria was named Epeur, and it is possible that the London church of St. Peter le Poor--which stood in Brode Street next Pawlet or Little Paul House--was originally a shrine of Jupiter the _puer_, or Jupiter the Boy.[562]

In the design now under consideration the Family consists of three--the Almighty and Adam and Eve--but frequently the holy group consists of five, the additional two probably being Cain and Abel, Cain who slew his brother Abel, being obviously Night or Evil. In the emblems here ill.u.s.trated which are defined by Briquet as "cars"; four cycles are supported by a broca or spike, const.i.tuting the mystic five. In Jewish mysticism the Chariot of Jehovah, or Yahve, was regarded as "a kind of mystic way leading up to the final-goal of the soul".[563]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 303 to 306.--Mediaeval Paper Marks. From _Les Filigranes_ (Briquet, C. M.).]

The number of the Cabiri was indeterminate, and there is a probability that the sacerdotal Solar Chariot of the Cabiri, whether four or two-wheeled, originated the term cabriolet, whence our modern cab. I have elsewhere reproduced two pillars bearing the legend CAB, and we might a.s.sume that the two-wheeled vehicle ill.u.s.trated, _ante_, page 454, represented a cab were it not for the official etymology of _cabriolet_.

This term, we are told, is from _cabriole_, a caper, leap of a goat, "from its supposed lightness".[564] I have never observed a cab either skipping like a ram, or capering like a goat; and in the days before springs the alleged skittishness of the cab must have been even less marked. In any case the particular vehicle ill.u.s.trated _ante_, page 454, cannot with propriety be termed "a caperer," for it is reproduced by the editor of Ad.a.m.nan's _Life of Columba_, as being no doubt the type of car in which the Saint, even without his lynch pins, successfully drove a sedate and undeviating course.

The goat or _caper_ was a familiar emblem of _Jupiter_, and our words _kid_ and _goat_ are doubtless the German _gott_: the horns and the hoofs of the Solar goat--see _ante_, page 361--are perpetuated in the current notions of "Old Nick," and in many parts of Europe Saints Nicholas and Michael are equated;[565] hence there is very little doubt that these two once occupied the position of the two Cabiri, Nick or _Nixy_ being _nox_ or night, and Michael--Light or Day.

The Gaulish coin here ill.u.s.trated is described by Akerman, as "Two goats (?) on their hind legs face to face; the whole within a beaded circle": on the reverse is a hog, and some other animal represented with a _broccus_, or saw on its back. As this is a coin of the people inhabiting Agedinc.u.m Senonum (now Sens), the revolving twain are probably _gedin_--either _goats_, _kids_, or _G.o.ds_, and the baroque animal with the _broccus_ on its back may be identified with a _boar_.

There is not much evidence in this coin, which was found at _Brettenham_, Norfolk, of "degradation" from the Macedonian stater ill.u.s.trated _ante_, page 394, nevertheless, Sir John Evans st.u.r.dily maintains: "the degeneration of the head of Apollo into two boars and a wheel, impossible as it may at first appear, is in fact but a comparatively easy transition when once the head has been reduced into a form of regular pattern".[566]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 307.--Gaulish. From Akerman.]

The Meigle in Perths.h.i.+re, where the two-wheeled barrow or barouche was inscribed on the Thane stone, may be equated with St. Michael, and upon another stone at the same Meigle there occurs a carving which is defined as a group of four men placed in svastika form, one hand of each man holding the foot of the other. The author of _Archaic Sculpturings_ describes this att.i.tude as indicating the unbreakable character of the a.s.sociation of each figure with its neighbours, and expresses the opinion: "This elaborate variant of the symbol seems to symbolise aptly the four quarters of the earth, each quarter being represented by a man.

The four quarters make a complete circle, and therefore all humanity, through love and affinity, should join from the four parts and form one inseparable bond of brotherhood."[567]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 308.--British. From Evans.]

The wheel of _For_tune was sometimes represented by _four_ kings, one on each quadrant, and this emblem was used not only as an inn-sign, but also in churches, notably in Norfolk--the land of the Ikeni. The authors of _A History of Signboards_ cite continental examples surviving at Sienna, and in San Zeno at Verona. The wheels of San Zeno, Sienna, or Verona may be connoted with the Sceatta wheel-coin figured in No. 39 of page 364 _ante_, and with the seemingly revolving seals on the coin here ill.u.s.trated.[568] The Sceatta four beasts connected by astral spokes are probably intended to denote seals, the phoca or seal having, as we have seen (_ante_, page 224), been a.s.sociated with Chaos or Cause. In all probability the _phoca_ was a token of the Phocean Greeks who founded Ma.r.s.eilles: the phoca was pre-eminently a.s.sociated with _Pro_teus, and in the _Faroe_ Islands they have a curious idea that seals are the soldiers of _Pharaoh_ who was drowned in the sea. Pharaoh, or _Peraa_, as the Egyptian wrote it, was doubtless the representative Priest-King of Phra, the Egyptian Sun-G.o.d, and the drowning of Pharaoh in the Red Sea was probably once a phairy-tale based on the blood-red demise of a summer sun sinking beneath the watery horizon.

On Midsummer Day in England children used to chant--

Barnaby Bright, Barnaby Bright, The longest day and the shortest night,

whence it would appear that Barnaby was the _auburn_[569] divinity who was further connected with the burnie bee, lady bird, or "Heaven's little chicken". The rhyme--

Burnie bee, Burnie bee, fly away home Your house is on fire, your children will burn,

is supposed by Mannhardt to have been a charm intended to speed the sun across the dangers of sunset, in other words, the house on fire, or welkin of the West.

The name Barnabas or Barnaby is defined as meaning _son of the master_ or _son of comfort_; Bernher is explained as _lord of many children_, and hence it would seem that St. Barnaby may be modernised into Bairnsfather. In this connection the British Bryanstones may be connoted with the Irish Bernesbeg and with "The Stone of the Fruitful Fairy".

Bertram is defined by the authorities as meaning _fair and pure_, and Ferdy or Ferdinand, the Spanish equivalent of this name, may be connoted with the English Faraday.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 309.--Jehovah, as the G.o.d of Battles. Italian Miniature, close of the XII. Cent. From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 310.--Emblem of the Deity. _Nineveh_ (Layard).]

The surname Barry, with which presumably may be equated variants such as Berry and Bray, is translated as being Celtic for _good marksman_: the Cretans were famed archers, and the archery of the English yeomen was in its time perhaps not less famous. If Barry meant _good marksman_, it is to be inferred that the archetypal Barry was Jou, Jupiter, or Jehovah as here represented, and as there is no known etymology for _yeoman_, it may be that the original _yeomen_ were like the Barrys, "good marksmen".

The Greeks portrayed Apollo, and the Tyrians Adad, as a Sovereign Archer, and as the lord of an unerring bow. The name Adad is seemingly ad-ad, a duplication of Ad probably once meaning _Head Head_, or _Haut Haut_,[570] and the Celtic _dad_ or _tad_ is presumably a corroded form of Adad. The famous archer Robin Hood, now generally accepted as a myth survival, will be considered later; meanwhile it may here be noted that the authorities derive the surnames Taddy, Addy, Adkin, Aitkin, etc., from _Adam_. One may connote Adkin or Little Ad with Hudkin, a Dutch and German elf akin to Robin Goodfellow: "Hudkin is a very familiar devil, who will do n.o.body hurt, except he receive injury; but he cannot abide that, nor yet be mocked. He talketh with men friendly, sometimes visibly, sometimes invisibly. There go as many tales upon this Hudkin in some parts of Germany as there did in England on Robin Goodfellow."[571]

To this Hud the Leicesters.h.i.+re place-name Odestone or Odstone near Twycross--_query_ Two or Twa cross--may be due.

I have suggested that the word _bosom_ or _bosen_, was originally the plural of _boss_, whence it is probable that the name Barnebas meant the Bairn, Boss, or teat. The word _bosse_ was also used to denote a fountain or gush, and the Boss Alley, which is still standing near St.

Paul's, may mark either the site of a spring, or more probably of what was known as St. Paul's Stump. As late as 1714 the porters of Billingsgate used to invite the pa.s.ser-by to _buss_ or kiss Paul's Stump; if he complied they gave him a name, and he was compelled to choose a G.o.dfather: if he refused to conform to the custom he was lifted up and b.u.mped heavily against the stump. This must have been the relic of an extremely ancient formality, and it is not unlikely that the Church of Boston in Norfolk covers the site of a similar stump: Boston, originally _Icken_hoe, a haw or hill of Icken, is situated in what was once the territory of the Ikeni, and its church tower to this day is known as "Boston Stump". At Boskenna (_bos_ or abode of _ikenna_?) in the parish of St. Buryan, Cornwall, is a stone circle, and a cromlech "thought to have been the seat of an arch Druid". The chief street of Boston is named Burgate, there is a Burgate at Canterbury near which are Bossenden Woods, and Bysing Wood.

In the West of England the numerous _bos-_ prefixes generally mean _abode_: one of the earliest abodes was the beehive hut, which was essentially a boss.

At Porlock (Somerset) is Bossington Beacon; there is a Bossington near Broughton, and a Bosley at Prestbury, Ches.h.i.+re. In the immediate proximity of Bosse Alley, London, Stow mentions a Brickels Lane, and there still remains a Brick Hill, Brooks Wharf, and Broken Wharf. It is not improbable that the river Walbrook which did _not_ run around the _walls_ of London but pa.s.sed immediately through the heart of the city was named after Brook or Alberick, or Oberon: in any case the generic terms _burn_, _brook_, and _bourne_ (Gothic _brunna_, a spring or well), have to be accounted for, and we may seemingly watch them forming at the English river Brue, and at least two English bournes, burns, or brooks known as Barrow.

We have already considered the pair of military saints famous at Byzantium or St. Michael's Town: in the neighbourhood of Macclesfield, Ches.h.i.+re, is a Bosley: the Bosmere district in c.u.mberland includes a Mickfield, in view of which it becomes interesting to note, near Old Jewry, in London, the parish church of St. Michael, called St. Michael at Ba.s.sings hall. With Michael at Ba.s.sings hall may be connoted St.

Michael of Guernsey, an island once divided into two great fiefs, of which one was the property of Anchetil Vicomte du _Bessin_. The bussing of St. Paul's Stump or the Bosse of Billingsgate had evidently its parallel in the Fief du Bessin, for Miss Carey in her account of the Chevauchee of St. Michael observes that, "the one traditional dance connected with all our old festivals and merry-makings has always been the one known as _A mon beau Laurier_, where the dancers join hands and whirl round, curtsey, and kiss a central object".[572]

We may reasonably a.s.sume that John Barton, who is mentioned by Stow as a great benefactor to the church of St. Michael, was either John Briton, or John of some particular Barton, possibly of the neighbouring Pardon Churchyard. The adjacent Bosse Alley is next _Huggen_ Lane, wherein is the Church of All Hallows, and running past the church of St. Michael at Ba.s.sings hall is another _Hugan_ Lane. _Gyne_, as in gynaecology, is Greek for _woman_, whence the _gyne_ or _queen_ of the Ikenian _Icken_hoe or Boston Stump, may have meant simply woman, maiden, _queen_, or "a flaunting extravagant _quean_". Somewhat east from the Sun tavern,[573] on the north side of this Michael's church, is Mayden Lane, "now so called," says Stow, "but of old time Ingene Lane, or Ing Lane": "down lower," he continues, "is Silver Street (I think of Silversmiths dwelling there)". It has been seen that Silver Streets are ubiquitous in England, and as this Silver Street is in the immediate proximity of Adle Street and Ladle Lane, there is some presumption that Silver was here the Leda, or Lady, or Ideal, by whom it was said that Jupiter in the form of a swan became the Parent of the Heavenly twins or Fairbairns. We have considered the sign of the Swan with two necks as found near Goswell Road, and the neighbouring _Goose_ Lane, Wind_goose_ Lane, Pente_cost_ Lane, and _Chis_well Street are all in this connection interesting. I have already suggested that Angus, Aengus, or Oengus, the pre-Celtic divinity of New Grange, meant _ancient goose_: Oengus was alternatively known as Sen-gann or Old Gann, connected with whom were two young Ganns who were described sometimes as the sons of Old Gann, sometimes as his father. In the opinion of Prof. Macalister Oengus, _alias_ Dagda mor, the Great Good Fire, _alias_ Sengann, "was not originally _son_ of the two youths, but _father_ of the two youths, and he thus falls into line with other storm G.o.ds as the parent of Dioscuri."[574]

There is little doubt that Aengus, the _ancient goose_, the Father of St. Bride, was Sengann the Old Gander, and in connection with St.

Michael's goose it is noteworthy that Sinann, the G.o.ddess of the Shannon, was alternatively ent.i.tled Macha. Mr. Westropp informs[575] us that Sengann was the G.o.d of the Ganganoi who inhabited Connaught, hence no doubt he was the same as Great King Conn, and Sinann was the same as Good Queen Eda.

At the north end of London Bridge stands Old Swan Pier, upon the site of which was once Ebgate, an ancient water-gate. "In place of this gate," says Stow, "is now a narrow pa.s.sage to the Thames called Ebgate Lane, but more commonly the Old Swan." _Eb_gate may be connoted with the neighbouring Abchurch Lane, where still stands what Stow termed "the parish church of St. Marie _Ab_church, _Ape_church, or _Up_church, as I have read it," and this same root seemingly occurs in the Upwell of St.

Olave _Up_well distant only a few hundred yards. This spot accurately marks the _hub_ of ancient London, and there is here still standing the once-famous London stone: "some have imagined," says Stow, "the same to be set up by one John, or Thomas Londonstone, dwelling there against, but more likely it is that such men have taken name of the stone than the stone of them".

There is little doubt that London stone, where oaths were sworn and proclamations posted, was the Perry stone of the men who made the six main roads or tribal tracks which centred there, of which great wheel _Ab_church formed seemingly the _hob_ or _hub_. Abchurch was in all probability originally a church of Hob, and it may aptly be described as one of the many primitive _abbeys_: there is an Ibstone at Wallingford, which the modern authorities--like the "John Londonstone" theorists of Stow's time--urge, was probably Ipa's stone: there is an Ipsley at Redditch, a.s.sumed to be either _aspentree meadow_ or perhaps _Aeppas mead_. Ipstones at Cheadle, we are told, "may be from a man as above"; of Hipswell in Yorks.h.i.+re Mr. Johnston concludes, "there is no name at all likely here, so this must be well at the hipple or little heap". But as Hipswell figures in Leland as _Ipres_well, is there any absolute _must_ about the "hipple," and is it not possible that Ipres or Hipswell may have been dedicated to the same _hipha_ or _hip_, the Prime Parent of our Hip! Hip! Hip! who was alternatively the Ypre of Ypres Hall and Upwell by Abchurch? At Halifax there is a _Hipper_holme which appeared in Domesday as _Huperun_, and here the authorities are really and seriously nonplussed. "It seems hard to explain Huper or Hipper.

There is nothing like it in _Onom_, unless it be Hygebeort or Hubert; but it may be a dissimilated form of _hipple_, _hupple_, and mean 'at the little heaps'."[576]

Let us quit these imaginary "little heaps" and consider the position at the Halifax Hipperholme, or Huperun. The church here occupied the site of an ancient hermitage said to have been dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the Father of hermits, and to have possessed as a sacred relic the alleged true face of St. John: my authority continues that this attracted great numbers of pilgrims who "approached by four ways, which afterwards formed the main town thoroughfares concentrating at the parish church; and it is supposed to have given rise to the name Halifax, either in the sense of _Holy Face_ with reference to the face of St. John, or in the sense of _Holy ways_ with reference to the four roads, the word _fax_ being Old Norman French for _highways_".[577] More recent authorities have compared the word with Carfax at Oxford, which is said to mean Holy fork, or Holy road, converging as in a fork. The roads at Carfax const.i.tute a four-limbed cross; Oxenford used to be considered "the admeasured centre of the whole island";[578] it was alternatively known as Rhydychain, whence I do not think that Rhydychain meant a ford for oxen, but more probably either _Rood King_, or _Ruddy King_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 311.--From _The Cross: Heathen and Christian_ (Brock, M.).]

In 1190 Halifax was referred to as Haliflex, upon which the Rev. J. B.

Johnston comments: "the _l_ seems to be a scribe's error, and _flex_ must be _feax_. Holy flax would make no sense. In Domesday it seems to be called Feslei, can the _fes_ be _feax_ too?" In view of the cruciform streets of Chichester, of our cruciform rood or rota coins, and of the four rivers supposed by all authorities to flow to the four quarters out of Paradise, is it not possible that four-quartered Haliflex was a fay's lea or meadow, whose founders built their "abbey"[579] in the true-face form of the _Holy Flux_ or Fount, the _ain_ or flow of living water?

Four _ains_ or eyes are clearly exhibited on the emblems here ill.u.s.trated, which show the four-quartered sacramental buns or brioches, whence the modern Good Friday bun has descended.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 312.--Roman roads. From _A New Description of England and Wales_ (Anon. 1724).]

It was a prevalent notion among our earliest historians that "In such estimation was Britain held by its inhabitants, that they made in it four roads from end to end, which were placed under the King's protection to the intent that no one should dare to make an attack upon his enemy on these roads".[580] These four great roads, dating from the time of King Belinus, and supposedly running from sea to sea, were probably mythical, but in view of the sanct.i.ty of public highways and the King's Peace which was enforced thereon, it is not improbable that numerous "Holloways"--now supposed to mean hollow or sunk ways--were originally and actually _holy ways_.

The Punjaub is so named because it is watered not by four but by five rivers, and that five streams possessed a mystic significance in British mythology is evident from the story of Cormac's voyage to the Land of Paradise or Promise.[581] "Palaces of bronze and houses of white silver, thatched with white bird's wings are there. Then he sees in the garth a s.h.i.+ning fountain with five streams flowing out of it, and the hosts in turn a-drinking its water."[582]

It has been recently pointed out that the Celtic conception of Paradise "offers the closest parallel to the Chinese," whence it is significant to find that in the Chinese "Abyss of a.s.sembly" there were supposed to lie five fairy islands of entrancing beauty, which were inhabited by spirit-like beings termed _shen jen_.[583] I have in my possession a Chinese temple-ornament consisting of a blue porcelain broccus of five rays or peaks, which, like the five fundamental cones of the Etruscan tomb (_ante_, p. 237), in all probability represent the five bergs or islands of the blessed. The inner circle of Stonehenge consisted of five upstanding trilithons of which the stones came--by popular repute--from Ireland. Among the Irish divinities mentioned by Mr. Westropp is not only the gracious Aine who was wors.h.i.+pped by five Firbolg tribes, but also an old G.o.d who kindled five streams of magic fire from which his sons--the fathers of the Delbna tribes--all sprang.[584]

It will be remembered that the Avebury district is the boss, gush, or spring of five rivers, and Avebury or Abury was almost without doubt another "abbey" or _bri_ of Ab on similar lines to the six-spoked _hub_, _hob_, or _boss_ of Abchurch, Londonstone. It is difficult to believe that the six roads meeting at Abchurch arranged themselves so symmetrically by chance, and it is still more difficult to attribute them to the Roman Legions.

As Mr. Johnson has pointed out there is a current supposition, seemingly well based, that some of the supposedly Roman roads represent older trackways, straightened and adapted for rougher usage.[585] That London stone at Abchurch was the hub, navel or _bogel_ of the Cantian British roads may be further implied by the immediately adjacent _Buckle_sbury, now corrupted into Bucklersbury. Parts of the Ichnield Way--notably at Broadway--are known as Buckle Street, the term _buckle_ here being seemingly used in the sense of Bogle or Bogie. It is always the custom of a later race to attribute any great work of unknown origin to Bogle or the Devil, _e.g._, the Devil's d.y.k.e, and innumerable other instances.

_Ichnos_ in Greek means _track_, _ichneia_ a _tracking_; whence the immemorial British track known as the _Ichnield_ Way may reasonably be connoted with the ancient Via _Egnatio_ near Berat in Albania. That Albion, like Albania, possessed very serviceable ways before the advent of any Romans is clear from Caesar's _Commentaries_. After mentioning the British rearguard--"about 4000 charioteers only being left"--Caesar continues: "and when our cavalry for the sake of plundering and ravaging the more freely scattered themselves among the fields, he (Ca.s.sivelaunus) used to send out charioteers from the woods by _all the well-known roads_ and paths, and to the great danger of our horse engage with them, and this source of fear hindered them from straggling very extensively".[586]

It has been seen that the Welsh tracks by which the armies marched to battle were known as Elen's Ways, whence possibly six such Elen's Ways concentrated in the heart of London, which I have already suggested was an Elen's dun. In French forests radiating pathways, known as _etoiles_ or stars, were frequent, and served the most utilitarian purpose of guiding hunters to a central Hub or trysting-place.

One of the marvels which impress explorers in Crete is the excellence of the ancient Candian roads. According to Tacitus the British, under Boudicca, chiefly Cantii, Cangians, and Ikeni, "brought into the field an incredible mult.i.tude".[587] The density of the British population in ancient times is indicated by the extent of prehistoric reliques, whereas the Roman invaders were never numerically more than a negligible fraction. It is now admitted by historians that Roman civilisation did not succeed in striking the same deep roots in British soil as it did into the nationality of Gaul or Spain. "For one thing, the numbers both of Roman veterans and of Romanised Britons remained comparatively small; for another, beyond the Severn and beyond the Humber lay the mult.i.tudes of the un-Romanised tribes, held down only by the terror of the Roman arms, and always ready to rise and overwhelm the alien culture."[588]

Commenting upon the Icknield Way, Dr. Guest remarks the lack upon its course of any Roman relics, a want, however, which, as he says, is amply compensated for by the many objects, mostly of British antiquity, which crowd upon us as we journey westward--by the tumuli and "camps" which show themselves on right and left--by the six gigantic earthworks which in the intervals of eighty miles were raised at widely different periods to bar progress along this now deserted thoroughfare.[589] In a similar strain Mr. Johnson writes of the Pilgrim's Way in Surrey: "To my thinking, the strongest argument for the prehistoric way lies in the plea expressed by the grim old earthworks and silent barrows which stud its course, and by the numerous relics dug up here and there, relics of which we may rest a.s.sured not one-half has been put on record."[590]

Tacitus pictures a Briton as reasoning to himself "compute the number of men born in freedom and the Roman invaders are but a handfull".[591] Is it in these circ.u.mstances likely that the Roman handful troubled to construct six great arteries or main roads centring to London stone?

The Romans ran military roads from castra to castra, but in Roman eyes London was merely "a place not dignified with the name of a colony, but the chief residence of merchants and the great mart of trade and commerce".[592]