Chapter 14

Fig.171.—From Barthelemy.

If my suggestion that Taliesin orRadiant Browwas a generic title assumed by every Primary-Chief-Bard inBritain for the time being be correct, it is likely that the same principle applied elsewhere than in Wales. The first bard mentioned in Ireland was Amergin, which resolves intoLove King, and may thus be equated with Homer the blind old man of Chios. The supposedly staid and gloomy Etrurians attributed all their laws and wisdom to an elphin child who was unexpectedly thrown up from the soil by a plough. As the Etrurian name for Cupid was Epeur, in all probability the aged child on Fig. 171 represents this elphin high-brow, and withEpeurmay be connoted the EtrurianPerugia—probably the same word as Phrygia. The local saint of Perugia, theland of Peru(?) was known as Good John of Perugia: in Hibernia St. Ibar is mentioned as being “like John the Baptist”.[344]

It was the custom in Etruria to representgood geniias birds: birds sporting amid foliage are even to-day accepted and understood as symbolic of good genii in Paradise, and birds orbrids, as we used to spell them, are of course Nature’s little singing men,i.e.,bardsorboreadæ. A percipient observer of the Pictish inscriptions found in Scotland has recently pointed out that, “With the exception of the eagle which conveys a special meaning, shown in many early Scottish stones, the image of a bird is a sign of good omen. Winged creatures, indeed, almost always stand for angelic and spiritual things, whether in pagan or Christian times. The bird symbol involved the conception of ethereality or spirituality. The birdmotifoccurs in the decoration of metallic objects in the British Islands duringthe early centuries in this era. I have found in Wigtownshire the image of a bird in bronze. It belongs to a time early in this era. It occurs within the pentacle symbol engraved on a pebble from the Broch of Burrian, Orkney. Birds are shown within the pedestal of a cross at Farr. Birds with a similar symbolism are found on the Shandwick stone, and on a stone at St. Vigeans. They are of frequent occurrence in foliageous work, often with the three-berried branch or with the three-lobed leaf, as at Closeburn. The pagan conception, absorbed into the early Christian ideas, was that the bird represented the disembodied spirit which was reputed to voyage here and there with a lightning celerity, like the flash of a swallow on the wing.”[345]

The Bards of Britain attributed the foundation of their order to Hu the First Pillar of the Island, and to unravel the personality of the early Bards will no doubt prove as impracticable as the disclosure of Homer, Amergin, Old Moore, and Old Parr.

No bird has ever uttered noteThat was not in some first bird’s throat,Since Eden’s freshness and man’s fallNo rose has been original.

No bird has ever uttered note

That was not in some first bird’s throat,

Since Eden’s freshness and man’s fall

No rose has been original.

As St. Bride, whose name may be connoted withbridorbird, was the goddess of eloquence and poetry, the Welsh term Prydain is no doubt cognate withpryduthe Welsh for “to compose poetry”. Probablyprate, mediævalpraten, meant originally topreachin a fervid, voluble, and sententious manner, but in any case it is impossible to agree with Skeat thatpratewas “of imitative origin”. Imitative of what—aparrot?

Thehyperof Hyperborean is our wordupper;over, Germanuber, meansaloft, which is radicallyalof, andexuberantandexhuberanceresolve into,from or out of Auberon: thebryonyis a creeper of notoriously exuberant growth, in Greekbrueinmeans to teem or grow luxuriantly.

Fig.172.—From Barthelemy.

With the river Ebro may be connoted the South Spanish town of Ebora or Epora which is within a few miles of Andura. The coins of this city are inscribedEpora,Aipora, andIipora, and the “bare bearded head to the right within a laurel garland” may here no doubt be identified with Hyperion, the father of Helios the Sun. In Homer, Helios himself is alluded to as Hyperion, which is the same name as our Auberon: the coins of the Tarragonensian town of Pria, which has been sometimes confused with Baria, in the south of Spain, figure a bull and are inscribed Prianen.

There are in existence certain coins figuring an ear of corn, a pellet, a crescent, the head of Hercules, and a club, inscribedAbra: the site of this city is unknown, but is believed to have been near Cadiz.

On the banks of the Tagus there was a city named Libora and its coins pourtrayed a horse: in the opinion of Akerman the unbridled horse was the symbol ofliberty,and it is quite likely that among other interpretations this was one, for it is beyond question that symbolism was never fettered into one solitary and stereotyped form.

The ancient Libora is now known as Talavera la Reyna which may seemingly be modernised intoTall Vera, the Queen. The Tarraconensian town of Barea—whose emblem was the thistle—is now known as Vera: the old Portuguese Ebora is now Evora,uberis the German forover; Varvara is the Cretan form of Barbara, and it is quite obvious that in various directions Vera and Bera with their derivatives were synonymous terms.

It would seem that Aubrey or Avery toured with his cross intoHelvetia, planting it particularly atGinevra, now Geneva, and there for the moment we may leave him amid theAlpineOberland at Berne.

The ancient town of Berne memorises in its museum a famed St. Bernard dog named “Barry,” which saved the lives of forty travellers: this “Barry” associated with Oberthal may be connoted with “Perro,” a shepherd’s dog in Wales, whose curious name Borrow was surprised to find corresponded withperro, the generic term fordogin Spain.[346]

Bernestill maintains its erstwhile sacred Bruin orbearsin their bear-pit, but the Gaulish Eburs or Iburii seemingly reverenced not Bruin but theboar,videtheEburcoin here illustrated. The capital of the ancient Eburii is now Evreux, and they seem, no doubt for some excellent reason, to have been confused with the Cenomani, a people seemingly akin to our British Cenomagni, Iceni, or Cantii.

Fig. 174, bearing the inscriptionEburo, is a coin of the Eburones who inhabited the neighbourhood of Liége. Itis a noteworthy fact that the people of Liége are admittedly conspicuous as the most courteous and charming of all Belgians. Their coins were inscribedEbur,Eburo, and sometimesCom—a curious and unexplained legend which occurs frequently upon the tokens of Britain.

The Celtiberian town of Cunbaria is now known as La Maria, the Kimmeroi were synonymously the Kymbri, and it is not improbable that these dual terms have survived in thecompèreandcommèreof modern France. Thepèresor priests of France, like the parsons, priests, and presbyters of Britain, assign to infants at Baptism a God-Father and a God-Mother, which the French term respectivelyparrainandmarrain.Compèreandcommèrefigure not only in the Church but also in the Theatre, and it is more than likely that thecommèreandcompèreof the modern Revue are the direct descendants of the patriarchalAbaris,Abhras,Priest, andPresbyterof prehistoric times.

Figs.173 and 174.—Gaulish. From Akerman.

On the Sierra deElviranear Granada used to stand Ilibiris whose coins are inscribedIliberi,Ilbrs,Iliberris,Liber,Ilbernen,Ilbrnakn,Ilbrekn, and these legends may be connoted with the famous Irish Leprechaun, Lobaircin, or Lubarkin who figures less prominently in England as the Lubrican or Lubberkin. Sometimes the Irish knock off theholyand refer simply to “a little prechaun,” but the more usual form is Lubarkin:[347]this most remarkable of the fairy tribe in Ireland is supposed to be peculiar to that island, but one would probably have once met with him at Brecon, or Brychain at Brecknock, at Brechin in Forfarshire, at Birchington in Kent, at Barking near London, and in many more directions. In connection with Iberia in the West there occur references to a giant Bergyon, who may be connoted with Burchun of the Asiatic Buratys. The religion of these Buratys was, said Bell, downright paganism of the grossest kind: he adds the information, “they talk, indeed, of an Almighty and Good Being who created all things, whom they call Burchun; but seem bewildered in obscure and fabulous notions concerning His nature and government”.[348]Inquiries may prove that these Burchun-worshipping Buratys were of the Asiatic Iberian race which Strabo supposed were descendants of the Western Iberi.[349]

In addition to Barking near London (DomesdayBerchinges) there is a Birchin Lane, and buried away in obscurity, opposite the Old Bailey in London, there is standing to-day a small open court entitled Prujean Square. In connection with this may be connoted the tradition that the origin of the societies of the inns of court is to be found in the law schools existing in the city: the first of these legal institutions entitled Johnstone’s Inn,[350]was situated in Newgate; and the vulgarity of the name Johnstone raises a suspicion that Johnstones were as plentiful in Scotland as Prestons in England, both alike being Aubry or Bryanstones, where the Brehon laws were enunciated and administered. Whether the present Prujean Squaremarks the site of the original Johnstone, whence Johnstone’s Inn, is a matter which may possibly be settled by future inquiry, but the word Prujean, which ispère John, renders it extremely likely that the original Johnstone of Johnstone’s Inn, Newgate, was alternativelypèreJohnstone. If this were so, Prujean Square marks the primary Law Court of the Old Bailey, and at some remote period the officers of the Law merely stepped across the road into more commodious premises.

The Governors of Gray’s Inn, another most ancient Law School, are entitled “the Ancients”;equityis radically the same word asequus, a horse; and the Mayors, or Mares, of Britain and Brittany seemingly represented the mare-headed Demeter or Good Mother.Jugeisgeegee, our judges still wearhorse-hair wigs of office, and the figure on the British coin here illustrated looks singularly like abrehonorbarristerwho has been called to the Bar.

Fig.175.—British. From Akerman.

It is common knowledge that the primitiveBarwas abarrow, from the summit of which the Druid, King, or Abaris administered justice, and around which presumably were ranged each at his stone the prehistoric barristers orabaristers? Even until the eighteenth century the lawyers were assigned each a pillar in St. Paul’s Church, and at their respective pillars the Men of Law administered advice. On the summit of Prestonbury Rings in Devonshire evidently once stood a phairie stone, and the name of Prestonpans in Scotland suggests that Prestons were not unknown in Albany.

The laws of Greece were admittedly derived from Crete,and such was the reputation of King Minos that the mythologists made him the Judge of the Under-world. Lycurgus, the Cretan, would not permit his Code to be committed to writing, deeming it more permanent if engraved upon the brain: the Brehon laws of Ireland were enunciated in rhymed triplets termed Celestial Judgments, and the most ancient Law Codes of all nations are assigned without exception to Bards and a divine origin.

Not only were laws enunciated from barrows, but the dead were buried in a barrow, and the knees of the deceased were tucked up under his chin so that the body assumed the position of an unborn child: in Welshbrumeant the belly or matrix, in Cornishbrymeant breast, and the notion seems to have been that the body of the deceased was restored as it were into Abraham’s bosom whence it had sprung.[351]

It is a remarkable fact that neither in the Greek nor Latin language is there any equivalent to the wordbarrow, whence it would seem, judging also from the immense number of round and oval barrows found in Britain, that these islands were pre-eminently the home of the barrow, and that the barrow was essentially a British institution.

Connected withbarrowis the civicborough, also thebergor hill: in Cornishbre,bar, orpermeant hill,[352]andbarmeant top or summit;biruais the Basque for head, and in Gaelicbarrameant supposedlymount of the circle.[353]

In Cornishbronmeant breast or pap, and one of the most popular heroines of Welsh Romance is the beautiful Bronwen or Branwen, a name which the authorities translate as meaningBosom White. In old Englishbosomwas writtenbosen, and asenwas our ancient plural, as in brethren, children, etc., it is probable that not only didbosenmean the bosses but thatbronor breast was originallybru en,bre enorbar en,i.e., the tops or hills. This symbol of the Great Mother was represented frequently by two hills—from the Paps of Anu down to twin barrows, and it was also represented mathematically by two circles.

In Celticbrynmeant hillock or hill, in Cornishbernmeant a hayrick, and that themowsor hayricks were made in the form ofbron, the breast, may be implied from ancient Inn Signs of the Barley Mow.Barawas Cornish forbread; in the same languagebarnmeant to judge,barnera judge, and there is good reason to suppose that the tithe barns connected with Monasteries and Churches served originally not merely as store-houses, but as Courts of Justice, theatres, and centres of religion. In Cornishbrontermeant priest,priestis the same word asbreast,and the notion ofparsons being pastors, feeders, or fathers is commemorated in the words themselves. In Cornishbreinorbrennmeant royal and supreme; the sacred centre stone of King’s County in Ireland was situated at Birr, andbiruahas already been noted as being the Basque forhead. The probability of these words being connected is strengthened by Keightley’s observation: “There must by the way some time or other have been an intimate connection between Spain and England, so many of our familiar words seem to have a Spanish origin”.[354]

Fig.176.—FromA Guide to Avebury(Cox, R. Hippesley).

In addition to the famous earthwork atAburyin Wilts there is a less familiar one atEuburyin Gloucestershire: at Redbourne in Herts is a “camp” known as “Aubrey’s” or “Aubury,” whence it would seem thatabri, the generic term for a shelter or refuge, might also have originated in Britain.[355]The colossalabriat Abury, or Aubrey, consistedof 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 nowOverton Hill.

Fig.177.—Avebury “restored”.

Lying in the sea a mile or so off the Cornish town of St. Just are apairof conicalbergs orpyramids 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 Phœnicians have been washed out of reckoning we may assign this idoleither to the Britons who, until recently wassailed 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 Hellenes, for the headland opposite the Brisons was known originally as Cape Helenus, and there are the ruins of St. Hellen’s Chapel still upon it.

Hellen, the mythical ancestor from whom the Hellenes attributed their national descent, may possibly be recognised not only as the Long Man or Lanky Man of country superstition but also in Partholonor Bartholon, 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(?) orPure 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 passage, quoted from Silvester Giraldus,[357]who was surnamed Cambrensis because he was a Welshman, permits the assumption 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.

Hellen 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 orjointpair, who created men by casting stones over theirshoulders. In the Christian emblem here illustrated the divine Père or Parent, is being assisted by an angel,peri, or phairy, and it is possible that the Prestons of Britain were at one time Pyrrha stones. As the syllablezanceof Penzance is always understood assan, holy, possibly the two Brisons may be translated intoPair Holy: with the Greek Pyrrha-Flood story may be connoted Peirun the name of the Chinese Noah.

Fig.178.—An Angel assisting the Creator. Italian Miniature of the XIII. Cent. FromChristian Iconography(Didron).

The church of St. Just was originally known as Lafroodha, which is understood to have meantlafchurch andrhooda,[358]“a corruption of the Saxon word rood or cross”. Rhooda is, however, much older than Saxon,rhodais 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 asRodau’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 itSilus hic jacet, the Greek letters Χ ΡHêΧ.Ρ., 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.”

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 assign his name at any rate to the Selli, under which title 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 aroundThy Sellian priests, men of unwashen feet,That on the bare ground sleep.

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 assume that theselliof Dodona—as probably also thesaliior augurs of Etruria—lived originally incellseither single or in clusters which became the foundations of later monasteries: Silus may thus be connoted withsolus, and the wordcelibatesuggests that theselliledsolitary 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 withallon, the Hebrew for oak, and with the fact that the oak groves of theselliat Dodona were universally renowned. The Scilly Islands and Selsea or Sels Island in Hampshire may be connoted with Selby or Selebi, the abode of theselli(?), in Yorkshire, now Selby Abbey. In Devonshire isZealMonachorum, and judging by what was accomplished we may define theselliaszealous and celestial-minded souls. In Welshcellimeans agrove; in Latinsylvameans awood; it is notorious that the Druids worshipped in groves, and it is not unlikely that Silbury Hill was particularly the selli’s hill or barrow. On the other hand the pervasiveness ofBuryat Abury as exemplified in the immediately adjacentBarbury Castle,Boreham Downs,Bradenstoke,Overton Hill, and OliversCastle, makes it likely that theSilof Silbury may have been the Sol of Solway and Salisbury Crags.

In Ireland our softcelliskil, whence Kilkenny, Kilbride, and upwards of 1400 place-names, all meaningcell of, orholy toso and so. The enormous prevalence of this hardkilin Ireland renders it probable that the word carried thesame meaning in many other directions, notably at Calabriain 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.

Fig.180.—FromThe 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 mystichaburahorfellowship;[359]and the Welsh wordBerea, probably connected withabri, meaning a sanctuary, is associated by Mr. Johnston with the passage in Acts xvii.,i.e.: “And the brethren immediately sent away Paul andSilasby night into Berea”. That Paul preachedfrom anabri, 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 God. 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 Hellen was once a familiar name at Abury is implied byLansdown,Lynham, and perhaps Calne oruch alnetheGreat Alone. Both the river Colne in Lancashire and the village of Calne near Abury are attributed as possibly tocalon, the Welsh for heart or centre: the wordcentreis radically San Troy, as also issaintuaryorsanctuary. 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 withchork, a contracted form ofking: I was unaware of this fact when first formulating my theory that an initialKmeantgreat.

It is considered that Alberich meantElf 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 recognisebenevolence as one of the principal traits of their character.[361]

Alberich may, as is generally supposed, have meant Alberich, orAlbe wealthy, butbrich,brick,brook, etc., are fundamental terms and are radicallyber uch. Brightlingsea—of which there are 193 variants of spelling—is pronounced by the natives Bricklesea, and there are innumerable British Brockleas, Brixtons, Brixhams, Brockhursts, etc.

Among the many unsolved problems of archæology are the Hebrideanbrochs, 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 inBerwickshire, at Cockburnlaw, and the remarkable recurrence ofBur, orBurra, in these place-names is obviously due to something more than chance.

Figs.181 and 182.—FromNotes on the Structure of the Brochs(Anderson, J.). Proceedings of the Scotch Society of Antiquaries.

AtBrookland Church in Kent—within a few miles of Camber Castle—a triplex conical belfrey orbergof wooden construction is standing, not on the tower, but on the ground in the immediate neighbourhood of the sacred edifice. The amazing cone-tomb illustrated onpage 237is that of Lars Porsenna, which means Lord Porsenna, and the bergs or conical pair ofBrisonrocks lying off Priest’s Cove at St. Just may be connoted not only with the word parson but with Parsons and Porsenna. Malory, inMorte d’Arthur, mentions an eminent Dame Brisen, adding that: “This Brisen was one of the greatestenchantresses that was at that time in the world living.”[362]

Fig.183.—FromSymbolism 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., theeglise, 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 berryseemingly meansgoodordivineberry, and thepickly character of the gooseberry bush no doubt added to the sanctity: from the word goosegoggogwas seemingly once a term equivalent toberry;a goose is often termed abarnacle, and the phantom dog—sometimes a bear—entitled thebargeistorbarguestwas no doubt a popular degradation of the Hound of Heaven. Two hounds in leash are known as abrache, 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.

Fig.184.—FromThe 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 flanged spokes of these essentialabriswere 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 aspeels, 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, andwhere 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.

Fig.185.—Iberian. From Akerman.Fig.186.—FromAn Essay on Ancient Coins, Medals, and Gems(Walsh, R.).

Fig.185.—Iberian. From Akerman.

Fig.186.—FromAn Essay on Ancient Coins, Medals, and Gems(Walsh, R.).

Fig.187.—From the British Museum’sGuide to the Antiquities of the Early Iron Age.

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 namedAl Borak, each of whose strides were equal to the furthest range of human vision: in Chaucer’s time English carmen addressed their steeds asbrok, and inArabicel borakameansthe blessing.Brochis the same word asbrooch, and upon ancient brooches abrok, 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.Brochorbrocameans a pin or spike, andprickmeans dot or speck:prick, likebrok, also meant horse, and every one is familiar with the gallant knight who “pricks,”i.e., rides on horseback o’er the plain.Prickandbrokthus obviously stand in the same relation to each other as Chilpericand Alberic.

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 withBruplace-names from St. Bride’s Bay wherein is Ramsey Island, known anciently asynis y Bru, the Isle of Bru, to Burry river and Barry Isle next Sulli Isle (theselliisle?).

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,Berrynarbor, the Brendon Hills, Paracombe andBaggyPoint; in the Totnes neighbourhood areBigbury, Burr Island, Beer Head, Berry Head, Branscombe, Branshill, and Prawle Point, which last may be connoted with the rivers Barle, Bark, and Brue. It isperhaps noteworthy that the three spots associated until the historic period with flint-knapping[367]areBeerHead in Devon,Purfleet near Barking, andBrandon 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, Prestonberry and Preston Castle or Shandy’s Hill.[368]Ebrington suggests aningtonor town of the children of Ebr; Alvington may be similarly connected with Alph, and Ilbert and Brent seemingly imply theHoly BerorBren. 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 Shoeburyness meant Totnose, and the adjacent Dodbrooke, Doddiscombleigh, and Daddy’s Hole may all be connoted with the Celtictad,dad, ordaddy. With the Doddi of Doddiscombleigh orDoddy’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 notKing’s TownbutKing Stone,i.e., a synonymous term for Preston and the same word as Johnstone.

If as now suggested Bru waspère Huwe may recogniseHu at Hoodown which, at Totnes, where it occurs, evidently doesnotmean 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 assume 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 Ratæ. The highest peak in Leicestershire is Bardon Hill, followed, in order of altitude, by “Old John” in Bradgate Park, Bredon, and Barrow Hill.

Adjacent to Ticehurst in Sussex—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 circumstances 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.

Fig.188.—FromA Guide to Avebury(Cox, R. Hippesley).

WithBredonin Leicestershire, a district where the tradition of a three-jumping giant, as has been seen, prevailed, may be connoted the prehistoric camp, orabri, of Bradenstoke, and that Abury itself was regarded as a vasttrinacriais probable from the fact that in the words of a quite impartial archæologist: “Thetriangleof 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 Dorsetshire 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 Berkshire Downs north-east to the Chilterns.”[369]

In this quotation I have ventured to italicise the wordtrianglewhich idea again is recurrent in the passage: “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]

Fig.189.—British. From Evans.

The assertion by Stukeley that Avebury described the form of a circle traversed by serpentine stone avenues has been ridiculed by less well-informed archæologists, largely on the ground that no similar erection existed elsewhere in the world. But on the British coin here illustrated 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 wheelto which the designer has successfully imparted the idea of movement.

Fig.190.—FromSymbolism of the East and West(Aynsley, Mrs. Murray).

Five miles N.-E. of Abury there stands on the summit of a commanding hill the natural great fortress known as Barbury Castle, surrounded by the remains of numerous banks and ditches. The name Barbara—a duplication of Bar—is in its Cretan form Varvary, and it was seemingly the Iberian or Ivernian equivalent of “Very God of Very God,” otherwise Father of Fathers, or Abracadabra. In Britain, and particularly in Ireland, children still play a game entitled, The Town of Barbarie, which is thus described: “Some boys line up in a row, one of whom is called the prince. Two others get out on the road and join hands and represent the town of Barbarie. One of the boys from the row then comes up to the pair, walks around them and asks—

Will you surrender, will you surrenderThe town of Barbarie?

Will you surrender, will you surrender

The town of Barbarie?

They answer—

We won’t surrender, we won’t surrender,The town of Barbarie.

We won’t surrender, we won’t surrender,

The town of Barbarie.

Being unsuccessful, he goes back to the prince and tells him that they won’t surrender. The prince then says—

Take one of my good soldiers.

This is done, and the whole row of boys are brought up one after the other till the town is taken by their parting the joined hands of the pair who represent the town of Barbarie.[371]

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