Archaic England Part 51

Adored art thou in every sacred place, In temples, holy dwellings, and in shrines.

Where is thy name not lauded? Where thy will Unheeded, and thy images not made?[750]

In the caves or "fetish shrines" of Crete have been found rude figurines of the Mother and the Child, and it is probable that the pathetically crude bronze statuettes here ill.u.s.trated represent the austere wielder of the wand of doom. Fig. 407 comes from Iberia where it was discovered in the vicinity of what was undoubtedly a shrine near the pa.s.s over the Sierra _Morena_ at Despena _Perros_: Fig. 408 comes from the English village of Aust-on-Severn. The place-name Aust appears in Domesday as Austreclive, and the authorities suppose it to have meant "not _East_ as often thought, but the Roman Augusta": I doubt whether any Roman Augusta ever troubled to claim a mere cleeve, and it is more probable that Austreclive was a cleft or pa.s.s sacred to the austere Austre. There is an Austrey at Atherstone, an Austerfield at Bawtry, and an "Austrells"

at Aldridge: this latter, which may be connoted with the Oyster Hills round Verulam, the authorities a.s.sume to have meant "Austerhill, hill of the hearth, forge or furnace". That Istar was the mighty Hammer Smith is probable, for the archaic hymnist writes:--

I thee adore-- The gift of strength is thine for thou art strong.

In all likelihood the head-dress of our figurines was intended to denote the crescent moon for the same hymnist continues:--

O Light divine, Gleaming in lofty splendour over the earth, Heroic daughter of the moon, O hear!

O stately Queen, At thought of thee the world is filled with fear, The G.o.ds in heaven quake, and on the earth All spirits pause and all mankind bow down With reverence for thy name ... O Lady Judge Thy ways are just and holy; thou dost gaze On sinners with compa.s.sion, and each morn Leadest the wayward to the rightful path.

Now linger not, but come! O G.o.ddess fair, O Shepherdess of all, thou drawest nigh With feet unwearied.

I have suggested that the circle of Long Meg and her daughters originally embodying the idea of a Marygold, Marguerite, or Aster, was erected to the honour of St. Margaret the Peggy, or Pearl of Price, and it is possible that the oyster or producer of the pearl may have derived its name from Easter or Ostara: that Astarte was St. Margaret is obvious from the effigies herewith, and the connection is further pointed by the already noted fact that in the neighbourhood of St. Margaret's, Westminster, there prevailed traditions of a Giantess named Long Meg.

This powerful Maiden was evidently Margaret or Invicta, on the War-path, her pugilistic exploits being far-famed: it is particularly related that Long Meg distinguished herself in the wars at Bulloigne, whence it will probably prove that "Bulloigne" was a.s.sociated with the War Maid whom the Romans termed Bellona, and that both Bulloigne and Bologna were originally shrines of Bello gina, either the _Beautiful Woman_ or the _War Queen_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 409.--St. Margaret. From Westminster Abbey. From _The Cross: Christian and Heathen_ (Brock, M.).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 410.--Astarte, the Syrian Venus. From a Coin in the British Museum. From _The Cross: Christian and Heathen_ (Brock, M.).]

That Istar, "the heroic daughter of the moon," was Bellona or the Queen of War is clear from the invocation--

O hear!

Thou dost control our weapons and award In battles fierce the Victory at will, O crowned majestic Fate. Ishtar most high, Who art exalted above all the G.o.ds, Thou bringest lamentation; thou dost urge With hostile hearts our brethren to the fray.

_The gift of strength is thine for thou art strong_, Thy will is urgent brooking no delay, Thy hand is violent, thou _queen of war_, Girded with battle and enrobed with fear, Thou sov'ran wealder of the wand of Doom, The heavens and earth are under thy control.

There is very little doubt that the heroic Long Meg of Westminster was alternatively the Mary Ambree of old English ballad: in Ben Jonson's time apparently any remarkable virago was ent.i.tled a Mary Ambree, and the name seems to have been particularly a.s.sociated with Ghent.[751] As the word Ambree is radically _bree_, it is curious to find John of Gaunt, who is a.s.sociated with Kensington, also a.s.sociated with Carn Brea in Cornwall: here, old John of Gaunt is believed to have been the last of the giants, and to have lived in a castle on the top of Carn Brea, whence in one stride he could pa.s.s to a neighbouring town four miles distant. The Heraldic Chain of SSS was known as John of Gaunt's chain: the symbol of SSS occurs frequently on Candian or Cretan monuments, and it is probable that John of Gaunt's chain was originally Jupiter's, or Brea's chain.[752]

The name Ghent, Gand, or Gaunt may be connoted not only with Kent or Cantium, and Candia or Crete, but also with Dr. Lardner's statement: "That the full moon was the chief feast among the ancient Spaniards is evident from the fact that _Agandia or Astartia_ is the name for Sunday among the Basques".

We have already seen that Cain was identified with "the Man in the Moon," that _cann_ was the Cornish for _full moon_, and we have connoted the fairy Kenna of Kensington with the New Moon: the old English _cain_, meaning _fair_ or bright, is clearly connected with _candid_ and _candescent_. Kenna is the saint to whom the village of Keynsham on the Somersetshire Avon is dedicated, and St. Kenna is said there to have lived in the heart of a wood. To the north of Kensington lies St. John's Wood, and also the ancient seat named Caen or Ken Wood: this Ken Wood, which is on the heights of Highgate, and is higher than the summit of St. Paul's, commands a panoramic view of the metropolis that can nowhere else be matched. Akin to the words _ken_, _cunning_, and _canny_, is the Christian name Conan which is interpreted as being Celtic for _wisdom_.

The Celtic names Kean and Kenny--no doubt akin to Coyne--meant _vast_, and in Cornish _ken_ meant _pity_. On the river Taff there is a Llan_gain_ of which the church is dedicated to St. Canna, and on the Welsh river Canna there is a Llan_ganna_ or Llan_gan_: at Llan_daff_ by Car_diff_ is Canon's Park.

There is a celebrated well in Cornwall known as St Kean's, St. Kayne's, St. Keyne's, or St. Kenna's, and the supposed peculiarity of this fountain is that it confers mastery or chieftainship upon whichever of a newly-wedded couple first drinks at it after marriage. St. Kayne or St.

Kenna is also said to have visited St. Michael's Mount, and to have imparted the very same virtue to a stone seat situated dizzily on the height of the chapel tower: "whichever, man or wife, sits in this chair first _shall rule_ through life": this double tradition a.s.sociating rule and mastery with St. Kayne makes it justifiable to equate the "Saint"

with _kyn_, _princess_ and with _khan_ the _great Han_ or King. There was a well at Chun Castle whose waters supposedly bestowed perpetual youth: _can_, meaning a drinking vessel, is the root of _ca.n.a.l_, _channel_, or _kennel_, meaning water course: we have already connoted the word _demijohn_ or Dame Jeanne with the Cornish well termed Joan's Pitcher, and this root is seemingly responsible for _canopus_, the Egyptian and Greek term for the human-headed type of vase as ill.u.s.trated on page 301. A writer in _Notes and Queries_ for 3rd January, 1852, quotes the following song sung by children in South Wales on New Year's morning, _i.e._, 1st January, when carrying a can of water newly drawn from the well:--

Here we bring new water From the well so clear, For to worship G.o.d with The happy New Year.

Sing levez dew, sing levez dew, The water and the wine; The seven bright gold wires And the bugles they do shine.

Sing reign of Fair Maid With gold upon her toe, Open you the west door, and let the old Year go.

Sing reign of Fair Maid With gold upon her chin, Open you the east door, And let the New Year in.

We have traced Maggie Figgy of St. Levan on her t.i.tanic chair supervising the surging waters of the ocean, and there is little doubt that the throne of St. Michael's was the corresponding seat of Micah, the Almighty King or Great One. The equation of Michael = Kayne may be connoted with the London Church now known as St. Nicholas _Acon_: this name appearing mysteriously in ancient doc.u.ments as alternatively "Acun," "Hakoun," "Hakun," and "Achun" it is supposed may have denoted a benefactor of the building. In Cornish _ughan_ or _aughan_ meant _supreme_; in Welsh _echen_ meant _origins_ or _sources_,[753] and as _Nicholas_ is the same word as _nucleus_ it is impossible now to say whether St. Nicholas Acon was a shrine of the _Great One_ or of _echen_ the little Nicholas or _nucleus_. Probably as figured at Royston where Kitt is bearing the Cadet or the small _chit_ upon his shoulder, the two conceptions were concurrent: on the opposite side of the Royston Cave is figured St. Katherine, Kathleen, or Kate: Catarina means _the pure one_, but _catha_ as in _catholic_ also means the universal, and there is no doubt that St. Kathleen or Kate was a personification of the Queen of the Universe.

Cendwen or Keridwen, _alias_ Ked, was represented by the British Bards as a mare, whale, or ark, whence emerged the universe: the story of Jonah and the whale is a variant of the Ark legend, and it is not without significance that the Hebridean island of Iona is identified as the locale of a miraculous "Whale of wondrous and immense size lifting itself up like a mountain floating on the surface".[754] Notwithstanding the forbidding aspect of this monster, St. Columba's disciple quiets the fears of his companion by the a.s.surance: "Go in peace; thy faith in Christ shall defend thee from this danger, I and that beast are under the power of G.o.d".

It has been seen that Night was not necessarily esteemed as evil, nor were the nether regions considered to be outside the radius of the Almighty: that Nicholas, Nixy, or Nox was the black or nether deity is obvious, yet without doubt he was the same conception as the Babylonish "exalted One of the nether world, Him of the radiant face, yea radiant; the exalted One of the nether world, Him of the dove-like voice, yea dove-like".[755]

That St. Margaret was the White Dove rather than the foul Culver is probable from her representation as the Dragon-slayer, and it is commonly accepted that this almost world-wide emblem denoted Light subduing Darkness, Day conquering Night, or Good overcoming Evil. But there is another legend of St. Margaret to the effect that the maid so meek and mild was swallowed by a Dragon: her cross, however, haply stuck in its throat, and the beast perforce let her free by incontinently bursting (date uncertain); in Art St. Margaret therefore appears as holding a cross and rising from a dragon, although as Voragine candidly admits--"the story is thought to be apocryphal". We have seen that Magus or the Wandering Jew was credited with the feat of wriggling out of a post--"and they saw that he was no other than a beardless youth and fair faced": that the adventure of Maggie was the counterpart to that of Magus is rendered probable by the fact that St. Margaret's birth is a.s.signed to Antioch, a city which was alternatively known as Jonah. With Jonah or Iona may be connoted the British Aeon--

Aeon hath seen age after age in long succession, But like a serpent which has cast its skin, Rose to new life in youthful vigour strong.

In Calmet's _Biblical Dictionary_ there is ill.u.s.trated a medal of ancient Corinth representing an old man in a state of decrepitude entering a whale, but on the same medal the old man renewed is shown to have come out of the same fish in a state of infancy.

Among the Greeks Apollo or the Sun was represented as riding on a dolphin's back: the word _dolphin_ is connected with _delphus_, the womb, and doubtless also with _Delphi_, the great centre of Apollo worship and the legendary navel of the Universe. Alpha has been noted as the British name of Noah's wife, and it is probable that Delphi meant at one time the Divine Alpha or Elf: in the Iberian coin here ill.u.s.trated (origin uncertain) the little Elf or spriggan is equipped with a cross; in the coin of Carteia (Spain) the inscription XIDD probably corresponds to the name which the British Bards wrote--"Ked".

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 411 and 412.--Iberian. From Akerman.]

In India the Ark or Leviathan of Life is represented as half horse or half mare, and among the Phoenicians the word _hipha_ denoted both _mare_ and _ship_: in Britain the _Magna Mater_, Ked, was figured as the combination of an old giantess, a hen, a mare, and as a ship which set sail, lifted the Bard from the earth and swelled out like a ship upon the waters. Davies observes: "And that the ancient Britons actually did portray this character in the grotesque manner suggested by our Bard appears by several ancient British coins where we find a figure compounded of a bird, a boat, and a mare". The coin to which Davies here refers is that ill.u.s.trated on page 596, Fig. 356: that the Babylonians built their ships in the combined form of a mare and fish is clear from the ill.u.s.tration overleaf.

The most universal and generally understood emblem of peace is a dove bearing in its beak an olive-branch,[756] or sprig, and this emblem is intimately a.s.sociated with the Ark: among the poems of the Welsh Bard Aneurin is the expectation--

The crowned Babe will come like Iona Out of the belly of the whale; great will be his dignity.

He will place every one according to his merits, He is the princ.i.p.al strong tower of the Kingdom.[757]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 413.--A Galley (Khorsabad). From _Nineveh_ (Layard).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 414 and 415.--British (Channel Islands). From Barthelemy.]

As Iona means dove, the culver on the hackney's back (Fig. 415) is evidently St. Columba, and the crowned Babe in Fig. 414 is in all probability that same "spriggan on Dowdy's back," or Elphin, as the British Bards speak so persistently and mysteriously of "liberating". In Egypt the spright is portrayed rising from a maculate or spotted beast, and in all these and parallel instances the emblem probably denoted rejuvenescence or new birth; either Spring _ex_ Winter, Change _ex_ Time, the Seen from the Unseen, Amor _ex_ Nox, Visible from Invisible, or New from Old.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 416.--From _The Correspondences of Egypt_ (Odhler).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 417.--Mediaeval Papermark. From _Les Filigranes_ (Briquet, C. M.).]

The eight parents from the Ark may be connoted with Aught from Naught, for _eight_ is the same word as _aught_ and _naught_ is the same word as _night_, _nuit_, or _not_: _naughty_ means evil, whence the legend of Amor being born from Nox or Night might perhaps have been sublimated into the idea of Good emerging even from things noxious or nugatory.[758] Yet in the c.o.x and Box like rule of Night and Day the all-conquering Nikky was no doubt regarded as _unique_: "Shining and vanishing in the beauteous circle of the Hours, dwelling at one time in gloomy Tartarus, at another elevating himself to Olympus giving ripeness to the fruits": it is not unlikely that the ruddy _nectarine_ was a.s.signed to him, and similarly _nectar_ the celestial drink of the G.o.ds, or _ambrosia_ in a liquid form.

Of the universally recognised Dualism the black and white magpie was evidently an emblem, and the superst.i.tions in connection with this bird are still potent. The Magpie is sometimes called Magot-pie, and Maggoty-pie, and for this etymology Skeat offers the following explanation: "Mag is short for Magot--French _Margot_, a familiar form of _Marguerite_, also used to denote a Magpie. This is from Latin _Margarita_, Greek _Margarites_, a pearl." There is no material connection between a pearl and a Magpie, but both objects were alike emblems of the same spiritual Power or Pair: between Margot and Istar the same equation is here found, for in Kent magpies were known popularly as _haggisters_.[759] Although I have deemed _hag_ to mean _high_ it will be remembered that in Greek _hagia_ meant holy, whence haggister may well have been understood as _holy ister_.

Layamon in his _Brut_ mentions that the Britons at the time of Hengist's invasion "Oft speak stilly and discourse with whispers of two young men that dwell far hence; the one hight Uther the other Ambrosie". Of these fabulous Twain--the not altogether forgotten Two Kings of their ancestors--we may equate Uther with the _uter_ or womb of Night and Aurelie Ambrosie with Aurora the Golden Sunburst.

It is probable that the Emporiae, some of whose elphin horse coins were reproduced on page 281, were worshippers of Aurelie Ambrosie or "St.

Ambrose" of whom it will be remembered: "some said that they saw a star upon his body": it is also not unlikely that our Mary Ambree or Fair Ambree was the daughter of Amber, the divine Umpire and the Emperor of the Empyrean. The ballad recalls:--

There was none ever like Mary Ambree, Shee led upp her souldiers in battaile array 'Gainst three times theyr number by breake of the day; Seven howers in skirmish continued shee, Was not this a brave bonny la.s.se, Mary Ambree?[760]

The s.e.x of this braw Maiden was disguised under a knight's panoply, and it was only when the fight was finished that her personality was revealed.

No captain of England; behold in your sight Two b.r.e.a.s.t.s in my bosome, and therefore no knight, No knight, sons of England, nor captain you see, But a poor simple la.s.s called Mary Ambree.

If the reader will turn back to the Virago coins ill.u.s.trated _ante_, p.

596, which I think represent _Ked_ in the aspect of _Hecate_--the names are no doubt cognate--he will notice the pastoral crook of the little Shepherdess or Bishop of all souls, and there is little doubt that these figures depict what a Welsh Bard termed "the winged genius of the splendid crosier".

Although Long Meg of Westminster was said to be a Virago, and was connected in popular opinion with "Bulloigne," it is not unlikely that Bulloigne was a misconception of Bulinga; the ornamental water of what is now St. James' Park is a reconstruction of what was originally known as Bulinga Fen, and in that swamp it is probable that Kitty-with-her-canstick, _alias_ Belinga the _Beautiful Angel_, was supposed to dwell. The name Bolingbroke implies the existence somewhere of a Bolinga's brook where Belle Inga might also probably have been seen "dancing to the cadence of the stream"; in Shropshire is an earthwork known as Billings Ring, and at Truro there is a Bolingey which is surmised to have meant "isle of the Bollings". These Bollings were presumably related to the Billings of Billingsgate and elsewhere,[761]

and the Bellinge or Billing families were almost certainly connected with Billing, the race-hero of the Angles and Varnians. According to Rydberg the celestial Billing "represents the evening and the glow of twilight, and he is ruler of those regions of the world where the divinities of light find rest and peace": Billing was the divine defender of the Varnians or Varinians, which word, says Rydberg, "means 'defenders' and the protection here referred to can be none other than that given to the journeying divinities of light when they have reached the Western horizon".[762]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG 418.--Adapted from the Salisbury Chapter Seal.

From _The Cross: Christian and Pagan_ (Brock, M.).]