Archaic England Part 52

That Billing and the Ingles were connected with Barks.h.i.+re, the county of the Vale of the White Horse or Brok, is implied by place-names such as Billingbare by Inglemeer Pond in the East, by Inkpen Beacon--originally Ingepenne or Hingepenne--in the South, and by Inglesham near Fearnham and Farringdon in the West. Near Inglemeer is s.h.i.+nfield and slightly westward is Sunning, which must once have been a place of uncanny sanct.i.ty for "it is amazing that so inconsiderable a village should have been the See of _eight_ Bishops translated afterwards to Sherborn and at last to Salisbury."[763] The seal of Salisbury represents the Maiden of the Sun and Moon, and it is probable that the place-name Maidenhead, originally Madenheith, near Marlow (Domesday Merlawe--Mary low or hill?) did not, as Skeat so aggressively a.s.sumes, mean a _hythe_ or landing place for maidens, but Maiden_heath_, a heath or mead sacred to the braw Maiden.

With the Farens and the Varenians may be connoted the Cornish village of Trevarren or the abode of Varren: this is in the parish of St. Columb, where Columba the Dove is commemorated not as a man but as a Virgin Martyr. Many, if not all, Cornish villages had their so-called "Sentry field" and the Broad Sanctuary at St. Margaret's, Westminster, no doubt marks the site of some such sanctuary or city of refuge as will be considered in a following chapter. That St. Margaret the Meek or Long Meg was the _Bride_ of the adjacent St. Peter is a reasonable inference, and it is probable that "Broad Sanctuary" was originally hers. According to _The Golden Legend_: "Margaret is Maid of a precious gem or ouche[764] that is named a Margaret. So the blessed Margaret was white by virginity, little by humility, and virtuous by operation. The virtue of this stone is said to be against effusion of blood, against pa.s.sion of the heart, and to comfortation of the spirit." I am unable to trace any immediate connection between St. Margaret and the Dove, but an original relation is implied by the epithets which are bestowed by the Gaels to St. Columbkille of Iona who is ent.i.tled "The Precious Gem,"

"The Royal Bright Star," "The Meek," "The Wise," and "The Divine Branch who was in the yoke of the Pure Mysteries of G.o.d". These are t.i.tles older than the worthy monk whose biography was written by Ad.a.m.nan: they belong to the archetypal Columba or Culver. There is a river Columb in Devons.h.i.+re upon which stands the town of Cullompton: in Kent is Reculver once a Royal town of which "the root is unknown, but the present form has been influenced by old English _culfre_, _culfer_, a culver-dove or wood-pigeon".

That St. Columba of Iona was both the White and the Black Culver is implied by his two names of Colum (dove) and Crimthain (wolf): that the great Night-dog or wolf was for some reason connected with the _nutrix_ (_vide_ the coin ill.u.s.trated on page 364, and the Etrurian Romulus and Remus legend) is obvious, apart from the significance of the word _wolf_ which is radically _olf_. Columbas' mother, we are told, was a certain royal Ethne, the _eleventh_ in descent from Cathair Mor, a King of Leinster: Leinster was a _stadr_, _ster_, or place of the Laginenses, and that Columba was a personification of Young Lagin or the Little _Holy King_ of Yule is implied (apart from much other evidence) in the story that one of his visitors "could by no means look upon his face, suffused as it was with a marvellous glow, and he immediately fled in great fear".

Among the Gaels the Little Holy King of Tir an Og, or the Land of the Young, was Angus Og or Angus the youthful: when discussing Angus (_excellent virtue_) in connection with the ancient goose and the cain goose I was unaware that the Greek for goose is _ken_. In the far-away Hebrides the men, women, and children of Barra and South Uist (or Aust?) still hold to a primitive faith in St. Columba, St. Bride, or St. Mary, and as a shealing hymn they sing the following astonis.h.i.+ngly beautiful folk-song:--

Thou, gentle Michael of the white steed, Who subdued the Dragon of blood, For love of G.o.d and the Son of Mary Spread over us thy wing, s.h.i.+eld us all!

Spread over us thy wing, s.h.i.+eld us all!

Mary, beloved! Mother of the White Lamb Protect us, thou Virgin of n.o.bleness, Queen of Beauty! Shepherdess of the flocks!

Keep our cattle, surround us together, Keep our cattle, surround us together.

Thou Columkille, the friendly, the kind, In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit Holy, Through the Three-in-One, through the Three, Encompa.s.s us, guard our procession, Encompa.s.s us, guard our procession.

Thou Father! Thou Son! Thou Spirit Holy!

Be the Three-One with us day and night, On the Machair plain, on the mountain ridge, The Three-One is with us, with His arm around our head, The Three-One is with us, with His arm around our head.

But the Boatmen of Barray sing for the last verse:--

Thou Father! Thou Son! Thou Spirit Holy!

Be the Three-One with us day and night, And on the crested wave, or on the mountain side, Our Mother is there, and Her arm is under our head, Our Mother is there, and Her arm is under our head.[765]

FOOTNOTES:

[692] _The Evening Standard_, 12th Nov., 1918.

[693] _Ibid._

[694] _Ancient Britain_, p. 283.

[695] _Cf._ Stoughton, Rev. J., _Golden Legends of the Olden Time_, p. 9.

[696] _Cf._ Stoughton, Rev. J., _Golden Legends of the Olden Time_, p. 5.

[697] Wright, T., _Travels in the East_, p. 39.

[698] Windle, Sir B. C. A., _Life in Early Britain_, p. 116.

[699] Mitton, G. E., _Clerkenwell_, p. 79.

[700] B.M., _Guide to Antiquities of Stone Age_, p. 26.

[701] _Holy Wells of Cornwall._

[702] Mitton, G. E., _Mayfair_, p. 1.

[703] Walford, E., _Greater London_.

[704] Bonwick, E., _Irish Druids_, p. 208.

[705] Hardwick, C., _Traditions, Superst.i.tions, and Folklore_, p.

34.

[706] The surname Brinsmoad still survives in the Primrose Hill neighbourhood.

[707] _Faiths and Folklore_, ii., 401.

[708] Herbert, A., _Cyclops Christia.n.u.s_, p. 114.

[709] _Ibid._, p. 114.

[710] _Travels in the East_, p. 28.

[711] Donnelly, I., _Atlantis_, p. 428.

[712] _Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes_, p. 82.

[713] Walford, E., _Greater London_, ii., 305.

[714] iii., 226.

[715] _A New Description of England_, p. 112.

[716] _A New Description of England_, p. 118.

[717] Walford, E., _Greater London_, i., 77.

[718] _Golden Legend_, iv., p. 235.

[719] _Cornish Feasts and Folklore_, p. 114.

[720] Stow, p. 217.

[721] In some parts this ceremony was known as "crying the Mare": in Wales the horse of the guise or goose dancers was known as Mari Lhwyd.

[722] Mrs. George of Sennen Cove.

[723] Irvine, C., _St. Brighid and her Times_, p. 6.

[724] _Greater London_, l., p. 40.

[725] Quoted, _St. Brighid and Her Times_, p. 7.

[726] Keightley, I., _F. M._, pp. 139-49.