Chapter 28

Fig. 420.—FromA New Description of England(1724).

At Patrixbourne in Kent was a seat known as Bifrons, once in the possession of a family named Cheyneys:[773]whether there be any connection between this estate named Bifrons andBifrons, orTwo fronted, a sobriquet applied to Janus, I am unaware: the connection Cheyneys—Bifrons—Patrixbourne is, however, the more curious inasmuch as they immediately neighbour a Bekesbourne, and on referring to Peckham we find that a so-termed Janus bifrons was unearthed there some centuries ago. The peculiarity of this Peckham Janus is that, unlike any other Janus-head I know, it obviously represents a Pater and Mater, and not two Paters, or a big and little Peter. The feminine of Janus is Jane or Iona, and at Iona in Scotland there existed prior to the Reformation when they were thrown into the sea, some remarkablepetræ, to wit, three noble marble globes placed in three stone basins, which the inhabitants turned three times round according to the course of the sun:[774]these were known asclacha brathor Stones of Judgment.

Tradition connects St. Columba of Iona in the Hebrides with Loch Aber, or, as it was sometimes written, Loch Apor, and among the stories which the honest Adamnan received and recorded “nothing doubting from a certain religious, ancient priest,” is one to the effect that Columbaon a memorable occasion, turning aside to the nearest rock, prayed a little while on bended knees, and rising up after prayer blessed the brow of the same rock, from which thereupon water bubbled up and flowed forth abundantly. With the twelve-mouthedpetraor rock of Moses which, according to Rabbinic tradition, followed the Israelites into the wilderness, may be connoted the rock-gushing fountain at Petrockstowe, Cornwall. That St. Patrick was Shony the Ocean-deity, to whom the Hebrideans used to pour out libations, is deducible from the legend that on the day of St. Patrick’s festival the fish all rise from the sea, pass in procession before his altar, and then disappear. The personality of the great St. Patrick of the Paddys is so remarkably obscure that some hagiographers conclude there were seven persons known by that name; others distinguish three, and others recognise two, one of whom was known as “SenPatrick,”i.e., the senile or senior Patrick: there is little doubt that the archetypal Patrick was represented indifferently as young and old and as either seven, three, two, or one: whence perhaps the perplexity and confusion of the hagiographers.

It is not improbable that the Orchard Street at Westminster may mark the site of a burial ground or “Peter’s Orchard,” similar to that which was uncovered in Wiltshire in 1852: this was found on a farm at Seagry, one part of which had immemorially been known as “Peter’s Orchard”.[775]From generation to generation it had been handed down that in a certain field on this farm a church was built upon the site of an ancientheathenburial ground, and the persistence of the heathen tradition is seeminglypresumptive evidence, not only of inestimable age, but of the memory of a pre-Christian Peter.

It may be assumed that “Peter’s Orchard” was originally an apple orchard or an Avalon similar to the “Heaven’s Walls,” which were discovered some years ago near Royston: these “walls,” immediately contiguous to the Icknield or Acnal Way, were merely some strips of unenclosed but cultivated land which in ancient deeds from time immemorial had been called “Heaven’s Walls”. Traditional awe attached to this spot, and village children were afraid to traverse it after dark, when it was said to be frequented by supernatural beings: in 1821 some labourers digging for gravel on this haunted spot inadvertently discovered a wall enclosing a rectangular space containing numerous deposits of sepulchral urns, and it then became clear that here was one of those plots of ground environed by walls to which the Romans gave the name ofustrinum.[776]

The old Welsh graveyards were frequently circular, and there is a notable example of this at Llanfairfechan: the Llanfair here means holy enclosure of Fair or Mairy, and it is probable that Fechan’s round churchyard was a symbol of the Fire Ball orFay King. At Fore in Ireland the Solar wheel figures notably at the church of “Saint” Fechan on an ancient doorway illustrated herewith. That the Latinustrinumwas associated with the Uster or Easter of resurrection is likely enough, for both Romans and Greeks had a practice of planting roses in their graveyards: as late as 1724 the inhabitants of Ockley or Aclea in Surrey had “a custom here, time immemorial, of planting rose trees in the graves, especially by the young menand maidens that have lost their lovers, and the churchyard is now full of them”.[777]That “The Walls of Heaven” by Royston was associated with roses is implied by the name Royston, which was evidently a rose-town, for it figures in old records asCrux Roies,Croyrois, andVilla de cruce Rosia. The expression “God’s Acre” still survives, seemingly from that remote time when St. Kit of Royston, the pre-Christian “God,” was worshipped at innumerable Godshills, Godstones, Gaddesdens, and Goodacres.

Fig. 421.—FromThe Age of the Saints(Borlase, W. C.).

Tradition asserts that the abbey church of St. Peter’s at Westminster occupies the site of a pagan temple to Apollo—the Etrurian form of Apollo was Aplu, and there is nodoubt that the sacredappleof the Druids was the symbol of the “rubicund, radiant Elphin” or Apollo. According to Malory, a certain Sir Patrise lies buried in Westminster, and this knight came to his untoward end by eating an apple, whereupon “suddenly he brast (burst)”:[778]from this parallel to the story of St. Margaret erupting from a dragon it is probable that Sir Patrise was the original patron of Westminster, or ancient Thorney Eye. Patera was a generic title borne by the ministers at Apollo’s shrines, and as glorious Apollo was certainly the Shine, it is more than likely that Petersham Park at Sheen, where still stands a supposedly Romanpetraor altar-stone, was a park or enclosure sacred to Peter, or, perhaps, to Patrise of the apple-bursting story.

The Romans applied the title Magonius to the Gaulish and British Apollo; sometimes St. Patrick is mentioned as Magounus, and it is probable that both these epithets are Latinised forms of the British name Magon: the Druidic Magon who figures in the traditions of Cumberland is in all probability the St. Mawgan whose church neighbours that of the Maiden St. Columb in the Hundred of Pydar in Cornwall.

One of the principal towns in Westmorland is Appleby, which was known to the Romans as Abellaba: the Maiden Way of Westmorland traverses Appleby, starting from a place called Kirkby Thore, and here about 200 years ago was found the supposed “amulet or magical spell,” illustrated in Fig. 422. The inscription upon the reverse is in Runic characters, which some authorities have read asThor Deus Patrius; and if this be correct the effigy would seem to be that of the solar Sir Patrise, for apparently the object in the right hand is an apple: there is little doubt that the great Pater figures at Patterdale, at Aspatria, and at the river Peterill, all of which are in this neighbourhood, and in all probability the Holy Patrise or Aspatria was represented by the culminating peak known as the “Old Man” of Coniston.

Some experts read the legend on Fig. 422 asThurgut Luetis, meaning “the face or effigies of the God Thor”: according to others Thurgut was the name of the moneyer or mintmaster; according to yet others the coin was struck in honour of a Danish Admiral named Thurgut: where there is such acute diversity of opinion it is permissible to suggest that Thurgut—whose effigy is seemingly little suggestive of a sea-dog—was originally theThree Goodor theThree God, for the figure’s sceptre is tipped by the three circles of Good Thought, Good Deed, and Good Word. In Berkshire the country people, like the Germans with theirdrei, saydreeinstead ofthree, and thus it may be that the Apples Three, or the Apollos Three (for the ancients recognised Three Apollos—the celestial, the terrestrial, and the infernal) were worshipped at Appledre, or Appledoreopposite Barnstable, and at AppledurComb or Appledurwell, a manor in the parish of Godshill, Isle of Wight.

Fig. 422.—FromA New Description of England.

English “Appletons” are numerous, and at Derby is an Appletree which was originally Appletrefelde: it is known that this Apple-Tree-Field contained an apple-tree whichwas once the meeting place of the Hundred or Shire division, and it is probable that the two Apuldre’s of Devon served a similar public use. As late as 1826 it was the custom, at Appleton in Cheshire, “at the time of the wake to clip and adorn an old hawthorn which till very lately stood in the middle of the town. This ceremony is called the bawming (dressing) of Appleton Thorn”.[779]Doubtless Appleton Thorn was originally held in the same estimation as the monument bushes of Ireland, which are found for the most part in the centre of road crossings. According to the anonymous author ofIrish Folklore,[780]these ancient and solitary hawthorns are held in immense veneration, and it would be considered profanation to destroy them or even remove any of their branches: from these fairy and phooka-haunted sites, a lady dressed in a long flowing white robe was often supposed to issue, and “the former dapper elves are often seen hanging from or flitting amongst their branches”. We have in an earlier chapter considered the connection between spikes and spooks, and it is obvious that the White Lady or Alpa of the white thorn or aubespine is the Banshee or Good Woman Shee:—

She told them of the fairy-haunted landAway the other side of Brittany,Beyond the heaths, edged by the lonely sea;Of the deep forest-glades of Broce-liande,Through whose green boughs the golden sunshine creeps,Where Merlin,[781]by the enchanted thorn-treesleeps.

She told them of the fairy-haunted land

Away the other side of Brittany,

Beyond the heaths, edged by the lonely sea;

Of the deep forest-glades of Broce-liande,

Through whose green boughs the golden sunshine creeps,

Where Merlin,[781]by the enchanted thorn-treesleeps.

In the forest of Breceliande—doubtless part of the fairy Hy Breasil—was a famed Fountain of Baranton or Berendon into which children threw tribute to the invocation, “Laugh, then, fountain of Berendon, and I will give thee a pin”.[782]The first pin was presumably a spine or thorn; the first flower is the black-thorn; on 1st January (the first day of the first month), people in the North of England used to construct a blackthorn globe and stand hand in hand in a circle round the fire chanting in a monotonous voice the words “Old Cider,” prolonging each syllable to its utmost extent. I think that Old Cider must have been Thurgut, and that in all probability the initialCiwassy, the ubiquitous endearing diminutive of pucksy,pixie, etc.

According to Maundeville, “white thorn hath many virtues; for he that beareth a branch thereof upon him, no thunder nor tempest may hurt him; and no evil spirit may enter in the house in which it is, or come to the place that it is in”: Maundeville refers to this magic thorn as the aubespine, which is possibly a corruption ofalbathorn, or it may be of Hob’s thorn. In modern Frenchaubemeans the dawn.

We have seen that there are some grounds for surmising that Brawn Street and Bryanstone Square (Marylebone) mark the site of a Branstone or fairy stone, in which connection it may be noted that until recently: “near this spot was a little cluster of cottages called ‘Apple Village’”:[783]in the same neighbourhood there are now standing to-day a Paradise Place, a Paradise Passage, and Great Barlow Street, which may quite possibly mark the site of an originalBar loworBar lea. Apple Village was situated in what was once the Manor of Tyburn or Tyburnia: according to the “Confession” of St. Patrick the saint’s grandfather came from “a village of Tabernia,”[784]and it is probable that the Tyburn brook, upon the delta of which stands St. Peter’s (Westminster), was originally named after the Good Burn or Oberon of Bryanstone and the neighbouring Brawn Street. The wordtabernacleis traceable to the same roots astavern, Frenchauberge, Englishinn.

Around the effigy of Thurgut will be noted either seven or eight M’s: in mediæval symbolism the letter M stood usually for Mary; the parish church of Bryanstone Square is dedicated to St. Mary, and we find the Virgin very curiously associated with one or more apple-trees. According to the author ofSt. Brighid and Her Times: “Bardism offers nothing higher in zeal or deeper in doctrine than theAvallenan, or Song of the Apple-trees, by the Caledonian Bard, Merddin Wyllt. He describes his Avallenan as being one Apple-tree, the Avallen, but in another sense it was 147 apple-trees, that is, mystically (taking the sum of the digits, 1 4 7 equal 12), the sacred Druidic number.Thus in his usual repeated description of the Avallen as one apple-tree, he writes:—

Sweet apple-tree! tree of no rumour,That growest by the stream, without overgrowing the circle.

Sweet apple-tree! tree of no rumour,

That growest by the stream, without overgrowing the circle.

Again, as 147 apple trees—

Seven sweet apple-trees, and seven scoreOf equal age, equal height, equal length, equal bulk;Out of the bosom of mercy they sprung up.

Seven sweet apple-trees, and seven score

Of equal age, equal height, equal length, equal bulk;

Out of the bosom of mercy they sprung up.

Again—

They who guard them are one curly-headed virgin.”

In fairy-tale the apple figures as the giver of rejuvenescence and new life, in Celtic mythology it figures as the magic Silver Branch which corresponds to Virgil’s Golden Bough. According to Irvine the wordbranmeant not only the Druidical system, but was likewise applied to individual Druids who were termedbrans: I have already suggested that this “purely mystical and magical name” is our modernbrain; according to all accounts the Druids were eminently men of brain, whence it is possible that the fairy-tale “Voyage ofBran” and the Voyage of St. Brandon were originally brainy inventions descriptive of a mental voyage of which any average brain is still capable. The Voyage of Bran relates how once upon a time Bran the son of Fearbal[785]heard strange music behind him, and so entrancing were the sounds that they lulled him into slumber: when he awoke there lay by his side a branch of silver so resplendent with white blossom that it was difficult to distinguish the flowers from the branch. Withthis fairy talisman, which served not only as a passport but as food and drink, and as a maker of music so soothing that mortals who heard it forgot their woes and even ceased to grieve for their kinsmen whom the Banshee had taken, Bran voyaged to the Islands called Fortunate, wherein he perceived and heard many strange and beautiful things:—

A branch of the Apple Tree from EmainI bring like those one knows;Twigs of white silver are on it,Crystal brows with blossoms.There is a distant isleAround which sea horses glisten:A fair course against the white swelling surge,Four feet uphold it.

A branch of the Apple Tree from EmainI bring like those one knows;Twigs of white silver are on it,Crystal brows with blossoms.

A branch of the Apple Tree from Emain

I bring like those one knows;

Twigs of white silver are on it,

Crystal brows with blossoms.

There is a distant isleAround which sea horses glisten:A fair course against the white swelling surge,Four feet uphold it.

There is a distant isle

Around which sea horses glisten:

A fair course against the white swelling surge,

Four feet uphold it.

In Wales on 1st January children used to carry from door to door a holly-decked apple into which were fixed three twigs—presumably an emblem of the Apple Island or Island of Apollo, supported on the three sweet notes of the Awen or creative Word. Into this tripod apple were stuck oats:[786]the effigy of St. Bride which used to be carried from door to door consisted of a sheaf of oats; in Anglo-Saxonoatwasate, pluralaten, and it is evident that oats were peculiarly identified with the Maiden.

In Cormac’sAdventure in the Land of Promisethere again enters the magic Silver Branch, with three golden apples on it: “Delight and amusement to the full was it to listen to the music of that branch, for men sore wounded or women in childbed or folk in sickness would fall asleep, at the melody when that branch was shaken”. The Silver Branch which seems to have been sometimes that of the Apple, sometimes of the Whitethorn, corresponds tothe mistletoe or Three-berried and Three-leaved Golden Bough: until recent years a bunch of Mistletoe or “All Heal”—the essential emblem of Yule—used to be ceremoniously elevated to the proclamation of a general pardon at York or Ebor: it is still the symbol of an affectionatecumberor gathering together of kinsmen. King Camber is said to have been the son of Brutus; he was therefore, seemingly, the young St. Nicholas or the Little Crowned King, and in Cumberland the original signification of the “All Heal” would appear to have been traditionally preserved. InTales and Legends of the English LakesMr. Wilson Armistead records that many strange tales are still associated with the Druidic stones, and in the course of one of these alleged authentic stories he prints the following Invocation:—

1st Bard. Being great who reigns alone,Veiled in clouds unseen unknown;Centre of the vast profound,Clouds of darkness close Thee round.3rd Bard. Spirit who no birth has known,Springing from Thyself alone,We thy living emblem showIn the mystic mistletoe,Springs and grows without a root,Yields without flowers its fruit;Seeks from earth no mother’s care,Lives and blooms the child of air.4th Bard. Thou dost Thy mystic circle traceAlong the vaulted blue profound,And emblematic of Thy raceWe tread our mystic circle round.Chorus. Shine upon us mighty God,Raise this drooping world of ours;Send from Thy divine abodeCheering sun and fruitful showers.

1st Bard. Being great who reigns alone,Veiled in clouds unseen unknown;Centre of the vast profound,Clouds of darkness close Thee round.

1st Bard. Being great who reigns alone,

Veiled in clouds unseen unknown;

Centre of the vast profound,

Clouds of darkness close Thee round.

3rd Bard. Spirit who no birth has known,Springing from Thyself alone,We thy living emblem showIn the mystic mistletoe,Springs and grows without a root,Yields without flowers its fruit;Seeks from earth no mother’s care,Lives and blooms the child of air.

3rd Bard. Spirit who no birth has known,

Springing from Thyself alone,

We thy living emblem show

In the mystic mistletoe,

Springs and grows without a root,

Yields without flowers its fruit;

Seeks from earth no mother’s care,

Lives and blooms the child of air.

4th Bard. Thou dost Thy mystic circle traceAlong the vaulted blue profound,And emblematic of Thy raceWe tread our mystic circle round.

4th Bard. Thou dost Thy mystic circle trace

Along the vaulted blue profound,

And emblematic of Thy race

We tread our mystic circle round.

Chorus. Shine upon us mighty God,Raise this drooping world of ours;Send from Thy divine abodeCheering sun and fruitful showers.

Chorus. Shine upon us mighty God,

Raise this drooping world of ours;

Send from Thy divine abode

Cheering sun and fruitful showers.

In view of the survival elsewhere of Druidic chants and creeds which are unquestionably ancient, it is quite possible that in the above we have a genuine relic of prehistoric belief: that the ideas expressed were actually held might without difficulty be proved from many scattered and independent sources; that Cumberland has clung with extraordinary tenacity to certain ancient forms is sufficiently evident from the fact that even to-day the shepherds of theBorrowdale district tell their sheep in the old British numerals,yan,tyan,tethera,methera,[787]etc.

The most famous of all English apple orchards was the Avalon of Somerset which as we have seen was encircled by the little river Brue: with Avalon is indissolubly associated the miraculous Glastonbury Thorn, and that Avalon[788]was essentially British and anabriof King Bru or Cynbro is implied by its alternative title of Bride Hay or Bride Eye: not only is St. Brighid said to have resided at Avalon or the Apple Island, but among the relics long faithfully preserved there were the blessed Virgin’s scrip, necklace, distaff, and bell. The fact that the main streets of Avalon form a perfect cross may be connoted with Sir John Maundeville’s statement that while on his travels in the East he was shown certain apples: “which they call apples of Paradise, and they are very sweet and of good savour. And though you cut them in ever so many slicesor parts across or end-wise, you will always find in the middle the figure of the holy cross.”[789]That Royston, near the site of “Heaven’s Walls,” was identified with the Rood, Rhoda, or Rose Cross is evident from the ancient forms of the name Crux Roies (1220), Croyrois (1263), and Villa de Cruce Rosia (1298): legend connects the place with a certain Lady Roese, “about whom nothing is known,” and probability may thus associate this mysterious Lady with Fair Rosamond or the Rose of the World. In the Middle Ages, The Garden of the Rose was merely another term for Eden, Paradise, Peter’s Orchard, or Heaven’s Walls, and the Lady of the Rose Garden was unquestionably the same as the Ruler of the Isles called Fortunate—

—a QueenSo beautiful that with one single beamOf her great beauty, all the country roundIs rendered shining.

—a Queen

So beautiful that with one single beam

Of her great beauty, all the country round

Is rendered shining.

Some accounts state that the bride of Oberon was known as Esclairmond, a name which seemingly is one witheclair mondeor “Light of the World”.

Figs. 423 and 424.—British. From Akerman.

We have seen that the surroundings of the Dane John at Canterbury are still known as Rodau’s Town: the coins of the Rhodian Greeks were sometimesrotaeor wheel crosses in the form of a rose, and there is little doubt that our British rota coins were intended to represent various conceptions of the Rose Garden, or Avalon, or the Apple Orchard: using another simile the British poets preached the same Ideal under the guise of the Round Table.[790]Fig.179, (ante,p. 339) represented a rose combined with four sprigs or sprouts, and in Fig. 423 (British) the intention of the rhoda is clearly indicated: on the carved column illustrated onpage 708the rood is arhoda, and my suggestion in an earlier chapter that “Radipole road,” near London, may have marked the site of a rood pole is somewhat strengthened by the fact that Maypoles occasionally displayed St. George’s red rood or the banner of England, and a white pennon or streamer emblazoned with a red cross terminating like the blade of a sword. Occasionally the poles were painted yellow and black in spiral lines, the original intention no doubt being representative of Night and Day.

Alas poore Maypoles what should be the causeThat you were almost banished from the earth?Who never were rebellious to the lawes,Your greatest crime was harmless honest mirth,What fell malignant spirit was there foundTo cast your tall Pyramids to ground?

Alas poore Maypoles what should be the cause

That you were almost banished from the earth?

Who never were rebellious to the lawes,

Your greatest crime was harmless honest mirth,

What fell malignant spirit was there found

To cast your tall Pyramids to ground?

The same poet[791]deplores the gone-for-ever time when—

All the parish did in one combineTo mount the rod of peace, and none withstoodWhen no capritious constables disturb them,Nor Justice of the peace did seek to curb them,Nor peevish puritan in rayling sort,Nor over-wise churchwarden spoyled the sport.

All the parish did in one combine

To mount the rod of peace, and none withstood

When no capritious constables disturb them,

Nor Justice of the peace did seek to curb them,

Nor peevish puritan in rayling sort,

Nor over-wise churchwarden spoyled the sport.

Overwise scholars have assumed that the Maypole was primarily and merely a phallic emblem; it was, however, more generally the simple symbol of justice and “the rod of peace”:rod,rood, andruthare of course variants of one and the same root.

Among, if not the prime of the May Day dances was one known popularly as Sellingers Round: here probably theris an interpolation, and the immortal Sellinga was in all likelihoodsel ingaor the innocent and happy Ange of Islington:—

To Islington and Hogsdon runnes the streame,Of giddie people to eate cakes and creame.

To Islington and Hogsdon runnes the streame,

Of giddie people to eate cakes and creame.

At the famous “Angel” of Islington manorial courts were held seemingly from a time immemorial: on a shop-front now facing it the curious surname Uglow may be seen to-day, and in view of the adjacent Agastone Road it is reasonable to assume that at Hogsdon, now spelt Hoxton, stood once an Hexe or Hag stone, perhaps also that the hill by the Angel was originally known as theug lowor Ug hill. We have noted that fairy rings were occasionally termed hag tracks, and that the Angel district was once associated with these evidences of the fairies is seemingly implied by a correspondent who wrote toThe Gentleman’s Magazinein 1792 as follows: “Having noticed a query relating to fairy rings having once been numerous in the meadow between Islington and Canonbury, and whether there were any at this time, and having never seen those extraordinary productions whether of Nature or of animals, curiosity ledme on a late fine day to visit the above spot in search of them, but I was disappointed. There are none there now; the meadow above mentioned is intersected by paths on every side and trodden by man and beast.” Man and beast have since converted these intersections into mean streets among which, however, still stand Fairbank and Bookham Streets.

Fig. 425.—FromChristian Iconography(Didron).

The Maypole was generally a sprout and was no doubt in this respect a proper representative of the “blossoming tree” referred to in a Gaelic Hymn in honour of St. Brighid—

Be extinguished in usThe flesh’s evil, affectionsBy this blossoming treeThis Mother of Christ.

Be extinguished in us

The flesh’s evil, affections

By this blossoming tree

This Mother of Christ.

The May Queen was invariably selected as the fairestand best dispositioned of the village maidens, and before being “set in an Arbour on a Holy Day” she was apparently carried on the shoulders of four men or “deacons”:[792]assuredly these parochial deacons were personages of local importance, and they may possibly account for the place-name Maydeacon House which occurs at Patrixbourne, Kent, in conjunction with Kingston, Heart’s Delight, Broome Park, and Barham. The worddeaconisGood KingorDivine King: we have seen that four kings figured frequently in the wheel of Fortune, and the ceremonious carrying by four deacons was not merely an idle village sport for it formed part of the ecclesiastical functions at the Vatican. An English traveller of some centuries ago speaking of the Pope and his attendant ceremonial, states that the representative of Peter was carried on the back of four deacons “after the maner of carrying whytepot queenes in Western May games”:[793]the “Whytepot Queen” was no doubt representative of Dame Jeanne, the demijohn or Virgin, and the counterpart to Janus or St. Peter.

Fig. 426.—Cretan. From Barthelemy.

One of what Camden would have dubbed the sour kind of critics inquired in 1577: “What adoe make our youngmen at the time of May? Do they not use night-watchings to rob and steal yong trees out of other men’s grounde, and bring them home into their parish with minstrels playing before? And when they have set it up they will deck it with floures and garlands and dance around, men and women together most unseemly and intolerable as I have proved before.” The scenes around the Maypole (“this stinckyng idoll rather”) were unquestionably sparkled by a generous provision of “ambrosia”:—

From the golden cup they drinkNectar that the bees produce,Or the grapes ecstatic juice,Flushed with mirth and hope they burn.[794]

From the golden cup they drink

Nectar that the bees produce,

Or the grapes ecstatic juice,

Flushed with mirth and hope they burn.[794]

On that ever-memorable occasion at Stonehenge, when the Saxons massacred their unsuspecting hosts, a Bard relates that—

The glad repository of the world was amply supplied.Well did Eideol prepare atthe spacious circle of the worldHarmony and gold and great horses and intoxicating mead.

The glad repository of the world was amply supplied.

Well did Eideol prepare atthe spacious circle of the world

Harmony and gold and great horses and intoxicating mead.

The wordmeadimplies that this celestial honey-brew was esteemed to be the drink of the Maid;aleas we know was ceremoniously brewed within churches, and was thus probably once aholybeverage drunk onholy-days: the wordsbeerandbrewwill account for representations of the senior Selenus, as at timesinebriate. The Fairy Queen, occasionally the “Sorceress of the ebon Throne,” was esteemed to be the “Mother of wildly-working dreams”; Matthew Arnold happily describes the Celts as “drenched and intoxicated with fairy dew,” and it seems to have a general tenet that the fairy people in their festal glee were sometimes inebriated by ambrosia:—

From golden flowers of each hue,Crystal white, or golden yellow,Purple, violet, red or blue,We drink the honey dewUntil we all get mellow,Until we all get mellow.[795]

From golden flowers of each hue,

Crystal white, or golden yellow,

Purple, violet, red or blue,

We drink the honey dew

Until we all get mellow,

Until we all get mellow.[795]

In the neighbourhood of Fair Head, Antrim, there is a whirlpool known as Brecan’s Cauldron in connection with which one of St. Columba’s miracles is recorded. That the Pure King or Paragon was also deemed to be “that brewer” or the Brew King of the mystic cauldron, is evident from the magic recipe of Taliesin, which includes among its alloy of ingredients “to be mixed when there is a calm dew falling,” the liquor that bees have collected, and resin (amber?) and pleasant, precious silver, the ruddy gem and the grain from the ocean foam (the pearl or margaret?):—

And primroses and herbsAnd topmost sprigs of trees,Truly there shall be a puryfying tree,Fruitful in its increase.Some of it let that brewer boilWho is over thefive-woods cauldron.

And primroses and herbs

And topmost sprigs of trees,

Truly there shall be a puryfying tree,

Fruitful in its increase.

Some of it let that brewer boil

Who is over thefive-woods cauldron.

We have noted the five acres allotted to each Bard, five springs at Avebury, five fields at Biddenden, “five wells” at Doddington, five banners at the magic fountain of Berenton, and five fruits growing on a holy tree: the mystic meaning attached to five rivers was in all probability that which is thus stated in Cormac’sAdventure in the Land of Promise: “The fountain which thou sawest with the five streams out of it is the fountain of Knowledge, and the streams are the five senses through which Knowledge is obtained. And no one will have Knowledge whodrinketh not a draught out of the fountain itself and out of the streams.” That Queen Wisdom was the Lady of the Isles called Fortunate, is explicitly stated by the poet who tells us that there not Fantasy but Reason ruled: he adds:—

All this is held a fable: but who firstMade and recited it, hath in this fableShadowed a truth.[796]

All this is held a fable: but who first

Made and recited it, hath in this fable

Shadowed a truth.[796]

From the group of so-called Sun and Fire Symbols here reproduced, it will be seen that the svastika or “Fare ye well” cross assumed multifarious forms: in Thrace, the emblem was evidently known as theembria, for there are in existence coins of the town of Mesembria, whereon thelegendMesembria, meaning the (city of the) midday sun, is figured by the syllableMes, followed by the svastika as the equivalent ofEmbria.[797]

Fig. 427.—Sun and Fire Symbols from Denmark of the later Bronze Age. FromSymbolism of the East and West(Murray-Aynsley).

The whirling bird-headed wheel onpage 709is a peculiarly interesting example of the British rood, or rota of ruth; as also is No. 40 of Fig. 201 (ante,p. 364) where the peacock is transformed into a svastika: thepear-shaped visage on the obverse of this coin may be connoted with the Scotch wordpearie, meaning a pear-shaped spinning-top, and the sevenainsor balls may be connoted with the statement of Maundeville, that he was shown seven springs which gushed out from a spot where once upon a time Jesus Christ had played with children.

No. 43 of the contemned sceattae (p. 364) evidently represents the legendary Bird of Fire, which, together with the peacock and the eagle, I have discussed elsewhere: this splendid and mysterious bird—as those familiar with Russian ballet are aware—came nightly to an apple-tree, but there is no reason to assume that the apple was its only or peculiar nourishment. The Mystic Boughs illustrated onpage 627(Figs. 379 to 384) may well have been the mistletoe or any other berried or fruit-bearing branch: in Fig. 397 (p. 635) the Maiden is holding what is seemingly a three-leaved lily, doubtless corresponding to the old English Judge’s bough or wand, now discontinued, and only faintly remembered by a trifling nosegay.[798]

Symbolists are aware that in Christian and Pagan art, birds pecking at either fruit or flowers denote the souls of the blessed feeding upon the joys of Paradise: all winged things typified the Angels or celestial Intelligences whowere deemed to flash like birds through the air, and the reader will not fail to note the angelic birds sitting in Queen Mary’s tree (Fig. 425,p. 686).

There is a delicious story of a Little Bird in Irish folk-tale, and among the literature of the Trouveres or Troubadours, there isA Lay of the Little Birdwhich it is painful to curtail: it runs as follows: “Once upon a time, more than a hundred years ago, there lived a rich villein whose name I cannot now tell, who owned meadows and woods and waters, and all things which go to the making of a rich man. His manor was so fair and so delightsome that all the world did not contain its peer. My true story would seem to you but idle fable if I set its beauty before you, for verily I believe that never yet was built so strong a keep and so gracious a tower. A river flowed around this fair domain, and enclosed an orchard planted with all manner of fruitful trees. This sweet fief was builded by a certain knight, whose heir sold it to a villein; for thus pass baronies from hand to hand, and town and manor change their master, always falling from bad to worse. The orchard was fair beyond content. Herbs grew there of every fashion, more than I am able to name. But at least I can tell you that so sweet was the savour of roses and other flowers and simples, that sick persons, borne within that garden in a litter, walked forth sound and well for having passed the night in so lovely a place. Indeed, so smooth and level was the sward, so tall the trees, so various the fruit, that the cunning gardener must surely have been a magician, as appears by certain infallible proofs.

“Now in the middle of this great orchard sprang a fountain of clear, pure water. It boiled forth out of theground, but was always colder than any marble. Tall trees stood about the well, and their leafy branches made a cool shadow there, even during the longest day of summer heat. Not a ray of the sun fell within that spot, though it were the month of May, so thick and close was the leafage. Of all these trees the fairest and the most pleasant was a pine. To this pine came a singing bird twice every day for ease of heart. Early in the morning he came, when monks chant their matins, and again in the evening, a little after vespers. He was smaller than a sparrow, but larger than a wren, and he sang so sweetly that neither lark, nor nightingale, nor blackbird, nay, nor siren even, was so grateful to the ear. He sang lays and ballads, and the newest refrain of the minstrel and the spinner at her wheel. Sweeter was his tune than harp or viol, and gayer than the country dance. No man had heard so marvellous a thing; for such was the virtue in his song that the saddest and the most dolent forgot to grieve whilst he listened to the tune, love flowered sweetly in his heart, and for a space he was rich and happy as any emperor or king, though but a burgess of the city, or a villein of the field. Yea, if that ditty had lasted 100 years, yet would he have stayed the century through to listen to so lovely a song, for it gave to every man whilst he hearkened, love, and riches, and his heart’s desire. But all the beauty of the pleasaunce drew its being from the song of the bird; for from his chant flowed love which gives its shadow to the tree, its healing to the simple, and its colour to the flower. Without that song the fountain would have ceased to spring, and the green garden become a little dry dust, for in its sweetness lay all their virtue. The villein, who was lord of this domain, walked every day within his gardento hearken to the bird. On a certain morning he came to the well to bathe his face in the cold spring, and the bird, hidden close within the pine branches, poured out his full heart in a delightful lay, from which rich profit might be drawn. ‘Listen,’ chanted the bird in his own tongue, ‘listen to my voice, oh, knight, and clerk, and layman, ye who concern yourselves with love, and suffer with its dolours: listen, also, ye maidens, fair and coy and gracious, who seek first the gifts and beauty of the world. I speak truth and do not lie. Closer should you cleave to God than to any earthly lover, right willingly should you seek His altar, more firmly should you hold to His commandment than to any mortal’s pleasure. So you serve God and Love in such fashion, no harm can come to any, for God and Love are one. God loves sense and chivalry; and Love holds them not in despite. God hates pride and false seeming; and Love loveth loyalty. God praiseth honour and courtesy; and fair Love disdaineth them not. God lendeth His ear to prayer; neither doth Love refuse it her heart. God granteth largesse to the generous, but the grudging man, and the envious, the felon and the wrathful, doth he abhor. But courtesy and honour, good sense and loyalty, are the leal vassals of Love, and so you hold truly to them, God and the beauty of the world shall be added to you besides. Thus told the bird in his song’.”[799]

It is not necessary to relate here the ill-treatment suffered by the bird which happily was full of guile, nor to describe its escape from the untoward fate destined for it by the villein.

In Figs. 428 to 430 are three remarkable British coins all of which seemingly represent a bird in song: it is notimprobable that the idea underlying these mystic forms is the same as what the Magi termed theHonoveror Word, which is thus described: “The instrument employed by the Almighty, in giving an origin to these opposite principles, as well as in every subsequent creative act, was His Word. This sacred and mysterious agent, which in the Zendavesta is frequently mentioned under the appellationsHonoverandI am, is compared to those celestial birds which constantly keep watch over, the welfare of nature. Its attributes are ineffable light, perfect activity, unerring prescience. Its existence preceded the formation of all things—it proceeds from the first eternal principal—it is the gift of God.”[800]

Figs. 428 to 430.—British. From Evans.

The symbol of Hanover[801]was the White Horse and we have considered the same connection at Hiniver in Sussex: it is also a widely accepted verity that the White Horse—East and West—was the emblem of pure Reason or Intelligence; the Persian word forgood thoughtwashumanah, which is seemingly ourhumane, and if we readHonoverasancient verthe term may be equated in idea withwordorverbum. The Rev. Professor Skeat derivesthe wordshumanandhumanefromhumusthe ground, whence the Latinhomo, a man, literally, “a creature of earth,” but this is a definition which the pagan would have contemptuously set aside, for notwithstanding his perversity in bowing down to wood and stone he believed himself to be a creature of the sun and claimed: “my high descent from Jove Himself I boast”.

We have seen that Jove, Jupiter, or Jou was in all probability FatherJoy, and have suggested that the Wandering Jew was a personification of the same idea: it has also been surmised that Elisha—one of the alternative names of the Wanderer—meant radically Holy Jou: it is not improbable that the Shah or Padishah of Persia was similarly the supposed incarnation of this phairypère. The various well-authenticated apparitions of the Jew are quite possibly due to impersonations of the traditional figure, and two at least of these apparitions are mentioned as occurring in England: in one case the old man claiming to be the character wandered about ejaculating “Poor Joe alone”; in another “Poor John alone alone”.[802]Both “Joe” and “John” are supposed by Brand to be corruptions of “Jew”: the greater probability is that they were genuine British titles of the traditional Wanderer.

The exclamation of “alone alone” may be connoted with the so-called Allan apples which used to figure so prominently in Cornish festivities: these Allan apples doubtless bore some relation to the Celtic St. Allan:haleinemeansbreath,[803]elanmeans fire or energy, and it is in further keeping with St. Allan that his name is translated as having meantcheerful.

The festival of the Allan apple was essentially a cheery proceeding: two strips of wood were joined crosswise by a nail in the centre; at each of the four ends was stuck a lighted candle with large and rosy apples hung between. This construction was fastened to a beam or the ceiling of the kitchen, then made to revolve rapidly, and the players whose object was to catch the Allan apples in their mouths frequently instead had a taste of the candles.[804]Obviously this whirling firewheel was an emblem of Heol the Celtic Sunwheel, and as Newlyn is particularly mentioned as a site of the festival, we may equate St. Newlyna of Newlyn with the Noualen of Brittany, and further with the Goddess Nehellenia or New Helen of London. Nehellenia has seemingly also been traced at Tadcaster in Yorkshire where the local name Helen’s Ford is supposed to be a corruption of the word Nehellenia:[805]Nelly, however, is no corruption but a variant of Ellen. The Goddess Nehallenia is usually sculptured with a hound by her side, and in her lap is a basket of fruits “symbolising the fecundating power of the earth”.[806]In old Englishlinemeant to fecundate or fertilise, and in Britain Allan may be considered as almost a generic term for rivers—the all fertilisers—for it occurs in the varying forms Allen, Alan, Alne, Ellen, Elan, Ilen, etc.: sometimes emphasis on the second syllable wears off the preliminary vowel, whence the river-names Len, Lyn, Leen, Lone, Lune, etc., are apparently traceable to the same cause as leads us to useloneas an alternative form of the wordalone. The Extons Road, Jews Lane, and Paradise now found at King’s Lynn point to the probability that King’s Lynn (DomesdayLena,1100Lun, 1314 Lenne[807]) was once a London and an Exton. The great red letter day in Lynn used to be the festival of Candlemas, and on that occasion the Mayor and Corporation attended by twelve decrepit old men, and a band of music, formerly opened a so-called court of Piepowder: on reference to the Cornish St. Allen it is agreeable to find that this saint “was the founder of St. Allen’s Church in Powder”. This Powder, sometimes written Pydar, is not shown on modern maps, but it was the title for a district or Hundred in Cornwall which contains the village of Par: it would appear to be almost a rule that the place-name Peter should be closely associated with Allen,e.g., Peterhead in Scotland, near Ellon, and Petrockstowe or Padstowe in Cornwall is near Helland on the river Allan.

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