Archaic England Part 42

[583] "The inhabitants are called _shen jen_, spirit-like beings, a term hardly synonymous with _hsien_, though the description of them is consistent with the recognised characteristics of _hsien_. The pa.s.sage runs as follows: 'Far away on the Isle of Ku-she there dwell spirit-like beings whose flesh is [smooth] as ice and [white] as snow, and whose demeanour is as gentle and una.s.sertive as that of a young girl. They eat not of the Five Grains, but live on air and dew. They ride upon the clouds with flying dragons for their teams, and roam beyond the Four Seas. The _shen_ influences that pervade that isle preserve all creatures from petty maladies and mortal ills, and ensure abundant crops every year.'"--Yetts, Major W. Perceval, _Folklore_, x.x.x., i., p. 89.

[584] _Proc. Roy. Irish Acad._, x.x.xiv., c. 8, p. 135.

[585] _Folk Memory_, p. 339.

[586] _De B. Gallico_, v., 19.

[587] Annals, x.x.xiv.

[588] Hearnshaw, F. J. C., _England in the Making_, p. 22.

[589] _Origines Celticae_, ii., 240.

[590] _Folk Memory_, p. 349.

[591] _Agricola_, xv.

[592] Tacitus, _Annals_, x.x.xiii.

CHAPTER X

HAPPY ENGLAND

"In the old time every Wood and Grove, Field and Meadow, Hill and Cave, Sea and River, was tenanted by tribes and communities of the great Fairy Family, and at least one of its members was a resident in every House and Homestead where the kindly virtues of charity and hospitality were practised and cherished. This was the faith of our forefathers--a graceful, trustful faith, peopling the whole earth with beings whose mission was to watch over and protect all helpless and innocent things, to encourage the good, to comfort the forlorn, to punish the wicked, and to thwart and subdue the overbearing."--ANON, _The Fairy Family_, 1857.

"It is very much better to believe in a number of G.o.ds than in none at all."--W. B. YEATS.

It is generally supposed that the site of London has been in continuous occupation since that remote period when the flint-knappers chipped their implements at Gray's Inn, and the pile-dwelling communities, whose traces have been found in the neighbourhood of London Stone, drove their first stakes into the surrounding marshes. Not only are there in London the material evidences of antediluvian occupation, but "the fact remains that in the city of London there are more survivals from past history than can be found within the compa.s.s of any other British city, or of any other area in Britain."[593]

Sir Laurence Gomme a.s.signs some importance to the place-name "Britaine Street"--now "Little Britain"--where, according to Stow, the Earls of Britain were lodged, but it is probable that in _Up_well, _Eb_gate, _Ab_church, _Ape_church or _Up_church, we may identify relics of an infinitely greater antiquity.

When Caesar paid his flying visit to these islands he learned at the mouth of the Thames that what he terms an _oppidum_ or stronghold of the British was not far distant, and that a considerable number of men and cattle were there a.s.sembled. As it has been maintained that London was the stronghold here referred to, the term _oppidum_ may possibly have been a British word, Caesar's testimony being: "_The Britons apply_ the name of _oppidum_ to any woodland spot difficult to access, and fortified with a rampart and trench to which they are in the habit of resorting in order to escape a hostile raid".[594] That the _dum_ of _oppidum_ was equivalent to _dun_ is manifest from the place-name Dumbarton, which was originally Dunbrettan.

In view of the natural situation of St. Alban's there is a growing opinion among archaeologists that London, and not St. Alban's, was the stronghold which stood the shock of Roman conquest when Caesar took the _oppidum_ of Ca.s.sivellaunus.

The inscriptions EP, EPPI, and IPPI figure frequently on British coins, and there were probably local hobby stones, hobby towns, and _oppi duns_ in the tribal centre of every settlement of hobby-horse wors.h.i.+ppers. In Durham is Hoppyland Park, near Bridgewater is Hopstone, near Yarmouth is Hopton, and Hopwells; and Hopwood's, Happy Valley's, Hope Dale's, Hope Point's, Hopgreen's, Hippesley's and Apsley's may be found in numerous directions. It is noteworthy that none of these terms can have had any relation to the hop plant, for the word _hops_ is not recorded until the fifteenth century; nor, speaking generally, have they any direct connection with _hope_, meaning "the point of the low land mounting the hill whence the top can be seen".[595]

The word _hope_, meaning expectation, is in Danish _haab_, in German _hoffe_: Hopwood, near Hopton, is at Alvechurch (Elf Church?), apart from which straw one would be justified in the a.s.sumption that Hop, Hob, or Hoph, where it occurs in place-names, had originally reference to Hob-with-a-canstick, _alias_ Hop-o'-my-Thumb. The Hebrew expression for the witch of Endor, consulted by King Saul, is _ob_ or _oub_, but in Deuteronomy xviii. 11, the term _oph_ is used to denote a familiar spirit.[596] As we find a reference in Shakespeare to "urchins, _ouphes_, and fairies," the English ouphes would seem to have been one of the orders of the Elphin realm: the authorities equate it with _alph_ or _alp_, and the word has probably survived in the decadence of Kipling's "muddied _oaf_".

Offa, the proper name, is translated by the dictionaries as meaning _mild_, _gentle_: it is further remarkable that the root _oph_, _op_, or _ob_, is very usually a.s.sociated with things diminutive and small. In Welsh _of_ or _ov_ means "atoms, first principles";[597] in French _oeuf_, in Latin _ova_, means an egg; the little egg-like berry of the hawthorn is termed a _hip_; to _ebb_ is to diminish, and in S.W.

Wilts.h.i.+re is "a _small_ river," named the Ebbe. Hob, with his flickering candlestick, or the homely Hob crouching on the hob, seems rarely to have been thought of otherwise than as the child Elf, such as that superscribed EP upon the British coin here ill.u.s.trated: yet to the _ub_iquitous Hob may no doubt be a.s.signed _up_, which means aloft or overhead, and _hoop_, the symbol of the Sun or Eye of Heaven.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 313.--British. From Akerman.]

Within and all around the _oppida_ the military and sacerdotal hubbub was undoubtedly at times uproarious, and the vociferation used on these occasions may account for the word _hubbub_,[598] a term which according to Skeat was "imitative". This authority adds to his conjecture: "formerly also _whoobub_, a confused noise. Hubbub was confused with _hoop-hoop_, re-duplication of _hoop_ and _whoobub_ with _whoop-hoop_."

But even had our ancestors mingled _hip! hip!_ in their muddled minds even then the confusion would have been excusable.

_Ope_, when occurring in proper-names such as Panope or Europe, is usually translated Eye--thus, Panope as _Universal Eye_, and Europa as _Broad Eye_. The small red eye-like or optical berries of the hawthorn are termed _hips_ or haws, and it is probable that once upon a time the hips were deemed the elphin eyes of Hob, the Ubiquitous or Everywhere.

In India the favourite bead in rosaries is the seed named _rudraksha_, which means "the Eye of the G.o.d Rudra or S'iva": Rudra, or the _ruddy one_, is the Hub or centre of the Hindoo pantheon, and S'iva, his more familiar name (now understood to mean "kindly, gracious, or propitious") is more radically "dear little Iva or Ipha". In India millions of S'eva stones are still wors.h.i.+pped, and the _rudraksha_ seeds or Eyes of S'iva are generally cut with eleven facets,[599] evidently symbolising the eleven Beings which are said to have sprung from the dual personalities--male and female--of the Creative Principle.

_Epine_, the French for thorn, is ultimately akin to Hobany, and _hip_ may evidently be equated with the friendly Hob. According to Bryant Hip or Hipha was a t.i.tle of the Phoenician Prime Parent, and it is probable that our _Hip! Hip! Hip!_--the parallel of the Alban _Albani!

Albani!_--long antedated the _Hurrah!_

The Hobdays and the Abdys of Albion may be connoted with _Good Hob_, and that this Robin Goodfellow or benevolent elf was the personification of shrewdness and cunning is implied by _apt_ and in_ept_, and that happy little Hob was considered to be pretty is implied by _hubsch_, the Teutonic for _pretty_: the word _pretty_ is essentially _British_, and the piratical habits of the early British are brought home to them by the word _pirate_. We shall, however, subsequently see that _pirates_ originally meant "attempters" or men who _tried_.

The surname Hepburn argues the existence at some time of a Hep bourne or brook; in Northumberland is Hepborne or Haybourne, which the authorities suppose meant "burn, brook, with the hips, the fruit of the wild rose": but hips must always have been as ubiquitous and plentiful as sparrows. In Yorks.h.i.+re is Hepworth, anciently written Heppeword, and this is confidently interpreted as meaning _Farm of Heppo_: in view, however, of our hobby-horse festivals, it is equally probable that in the Hepbourne the Kelpie, the water horse, or _hippa_ was believed to lurk, and one may question the historic reality of farmer Heppo.

The hobby horse was princ.i.p.ally a.s.sociated with the festivals of May-Day, but it also figured at Yule Tide. On Christmas Eve either a wooden horse head or a horse's skull was decked with ribbons and carried from door to door on the summit of a pole supported by a man cloaked with a sheet: this figure was known as "Old Hob":[600] in Welsh _hap_ means fortune--either good or bad.

Apparently the last recorded instance of the Hobby-Horse dance occurred at Abbot's Bromley, on which occasion a man carrying the image of a horse between his legs, and armed with a bow and arrow (the emblems of Barry the Sovereign Archer), played the part of Hobby: with him were six companions wearing reindeer heads (the emblems of the Dayspring) who danced the hey and other ancient dances. Tollett supposes the famous hobby horse to be the King of the May "though he now appears as a juggler and a buffoon with a crimson foot-cloth fretted with gold, the golden bit, the purple bridle, and studded with gold, the man's purple mantle with a golden border which is latticed with purple, his golden crown, purple cap with a red feather, and with a golden knop".[601]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 314 to 317.--British. From Akerman.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 318.--British. From Camden.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 319.--Head Dress of the King (N.W. Palace Nimroud). From _Nineveh_ (Layard).]

A _knop_ or _k.n.o.b_ means a boss, protuberance, or rosebud--originally, of course, a wild rosebud which precedes the hip--and it is probably the same word as the CUn.o.b which occurs so frequently in British coins. In Fig. 314 CUn.o.b occurs alone, and I am not sure that Figs. 315 and 318 should not be read ELINI CUn.o.b. The k.n.o.b figured not only on our Hobby Horse, but also as a symbol on the head-dress of Tyrian kings, and there is very little doubt that the charming small figure on the obverse of CUn.o.b ELINI is intended for King Ob, or Ep. There is a Knap Hill at Avebury, a Knapton in Yorks.h.i.+re, and a Knapwell in Suffolk: Knebworth in Herts was Chenepenorde in Domesday, and the imaginary farmer Cnapa or Cnebba, to whom these place-names are a.s.signed, may be equated with the afore-mentioned farmer Heppo of Hepworth.

Knaves Castle (Lichfield), now a small mound--a _heap_?--is ascribed to "_cnafa_, a boy or servant, later a knave, a rogue": Cupid is a notorious little rogue, nevertheless, proverbially Love makes the world go round, and const.i.tutes its nave, navel, hub, or boss: with _sn.o.b_ Skeat connotes _snopp_, meaning a boy or anything _stumpy_.

In course of time like _boss_, Dutch _baas_, _k.n.o.b_ seems to have been applied generally to mean a lord or master, and the Londoner who takes an agreeable interest in the "n.o.bs"[602](and occasional _sn.o.bs_) riding in Hyde Park is possibly following an ancestral custom dating from the time when the Ring was originally constructed. Apsley House, now standing at the east end of Rotten Row, occupies the site of the park ranger's lodge, the Ranger was a highly important personage, and it is not improbable that the site of Apsley House was once known as Ap's lea or meadow. The immediately adjacent Stanhope Gate and Stanhope Street, or Stanhope in Durham, may mark the site of a stone hippa or horse similar to the famous stone horse in Brittany upon which--I believe to this day--women superst.i.tiously seat themselves with the same purpose as they sit upon the Brahan stone in Ireland: Bryanstone Square in London is not more than a mile from Stanhope Street and Apsley House.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 320.--La Venus de Quinipily, near Baud Morbihan, Brittany. From _Symbolism of the East and West_ (Aynsley, Mrs. Murray).]

The Breton statue of Quinipily may be deemed a portrait of _holy Queen Ip_, and Gwennap, near Redruth, where is a famous amphitheatre, was probably a Queen Hip lea or seat of the same Queen's wors.h.i.+p.

Gwen Ap was presumably the same as Queen Aph or G.o.diva, the Lady of the White Horse, and G.o.drevy on the opposite side of St. Ives Bay may be equated with _Good rhi Evy_, or Good Queen Evie. A few miles from Liskeard there is a village named St. Ive, which the natives p.r.o.nounce _St. Eve_: the more western, better-known Saint Ive's, is mentioned in a doc.u.ment of 1546 as "Seynt Iysse," and what apparently is this same dedication reappears at a place four miles west of Wadebridge termed St.

Issey. "Whose name is it," inquires W. C. Borlase, "that the parish of St. Issey bears?" He suggests somewhat wildly that it may be the same as Elidius, corrupted to Liddy, Ide, or Idgy, endeavouring to prove that this Elidius is the same as the great Welsh Teilo.

It would be simpler and more reasonable to a.s.sume that St. Issey is a trifling corruption of "Eseye," which was one of the t.i.tles of the old British Mother of Life. The G.o.ddess Esseye--alternatively and better known as Keridwen--is described by Owen in his _Cambrian Biography_ as "a female personage, in the mythology of the Britons considered as _the first of womankind_, having nearly the same attributes with Venus, in whom are personified the generative powers".

With Eseye and with St. Issey, _alias_ St. Ive, may be connoted the deserted town of Hesy in Judea: on the mound now known as Tell el Hesy, or the hill town of Hesy, the remains of at least eight super-imposed prehistoric cities have been excavated, and among the discoveries on this site was a limestone lampstand subscribed on the base APHEBAL.[603] The winged maiden found at the same time is essentially Cretan, and it is not an unreasonable a.s.sumption that on this _Aphe_ fragment of pottery from Hesy we have a contemporary portrait of the Candian Aphaia or Britomart, _alias_ Hesy, or St. Issy, or St. Ive: the British Eseye was alternatively known as Cendwen.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 321.--From _A Mound of Many Cities_ (Bliss, J. B.).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 322.--From _A Mound of Many Cities_ (Bliss, J. B.).]

The British built their _oppida_ not infrequently in the form of an eye or optic, and also of an oeuf, ova, or egg. The perfect symmetry of these designs point conclusively to the probability that the earthworks were not mere strongholds scratched together anyhow for mere defence: the British burial places or barrows were similarly either circular or oval, and that the Scotch dun ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 324 was British, is implied not only by its name Boreland-Mote, but by its existence at a place named Parton, this word, like the Barton of Dumbarton, no doubt signifying Dun Brettan or Briton.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 323.--From _The Motes of Kirkcudbrights.h.i.+re_ (Coles, F. R.). (Soc. Antiq. Scot.).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 324.--From _The Motes of Kirkcudbrights.h.i.+re_ (Coles, F. R.). (Soc. Antiq. Scot.)]