Chapter VIII: Scouring the White Horse (2)

At Coveney, in Cambridgeshire--query, _Coven ea_ or Coven's island?--bronze bucklers have been found which in design "bear a close resemblance to the ribbon pattern seen on several Mycenæan works of art, and the inference is that even as far north as Britain, the Mycenæan civilisation found its way, the intermediaries being possibly Phoenician traders".[456] But the Phoenicians having now been evicted from the court it is manifestly needful to find some other explanation.

Coveney is not many miles from St. Ives, Huntingdon, named supposedly after Ivo, a Persian bishop, who wandered through Europe in the seventh century. Possibly this same episcopal Persian founded Effingham near Bookham and Boxhill, for at the foot of the Buckland Hills is Givon's Grove, once forming part of a Manor named Pachevesham. On the downs above is Epsom, which certainly for some centuries has been _Ep's home_,[457] and the Pacheve of Pachevesham was possibly the same _Big Hipha_: there is second Evesham in the same neighbourhood. Speaking of the British inscription EPPILOS, Sir John Rhys observes that it is very probably a derivation from _epo_, a horse; and of the town of _Ep_eiacon, now _Eb_chester, the same authority states: "The name seems to signify a place for horses or cavalry".[458] Near Pachevesham, below Epsom, is an old inn named "The Running Mare".

In connection with Givon, or Govan, or Coven, it is interesting to note that the word used by Tacitus to denote a British chariot is _covinus_. Local tradition claims that the scythes of Boudiccas _coveni_ were made at Birmingham, and there may be truth in this for the _bir_ of Birmingham is the radical of _faber_, feu_ber_, or _fire father_, and likewise of _Lefebre_, the French equivalent of Smith. That Birmingham was an erstwhile home of the followers of the Fire Father, the Prime, or Forge of Life, is deducible not only from the popular "Brum" or "Brummagem," but from the various forms recorded of the name.[459] The variant Brymecham may be modernised into Prime King; the neighbouring Bromsgrove is equivalent to Auberon's Grove; Bromieham was no doubt a home of the Brownies, and the authorities are sufficiently right in deriving from this name "Home of the sons of _Beorn_". Bragg is a common surname in Birmingham: Perkunas or _Peroon_, the Slav Pater or Jupiter, was always represented with a hammer. In Fig. 175 _ante_, p. 332, the British Fire Father, or Hammersmith, was labouring at what is assumed to be a helmet or a burnie, and Fig. 258 is evidently a variant of the same subject. In the _Red Book of Hergest_ there occurs a line--"With Math the ancient, with Gofannon," from which one might gather that Math and Gofannon were one. In any case the word _smith_ is apparently _se mith_, _se meath_, or _Se Math_, and the Smeath's Ridge at Avebury was probably named after the heavenly Smith or _Gofan_.

According to Rice Holmes the bronze image of a god with a hammer has been found in England, but where or when is not stated: it is, however, generally believed that this Celtic Hammer Smith was a representation of the Dis Pater,[460] to whom the Celts attributed their origin.

The London place-name Hammersmith appears in Domesday Book as Hermoderwode: in Old High German _har_ or _herr_ meant _high_, whence I suggest that Hermoderwode has not undergone any unaccountable phonetic change into Hammersmith, but was then surviving German for _Her moder_ or _High Mother_ Wood. From Broadway Hammersmith to Shepherd's Bush runs "The Grove," and that originally this grove had cells of the Selli in it is somewhat implied by the name Silgrave, still applied to a side-street leading into The Grove. "Brewster Gardens," "Bradmore House," "British Grove," and Broadway all alike point similarly to Hammersmith being a pre-Saxon British settlement. Bradmore was the Manor house at Hammersmith, and the existence of lewes, leys, or barrows on this Brad moor is implied by the modern Leysfield Road. The lewes at Folkestone were in all probability situated on the commanding Leas, and as the local pronunciation of Lewis in the Hebrides is "the Lews" there likewise were probably two or more lowes or laws whence the laws were proclaimed and administered. Bradmore is suggestive of St. Bride, the heavenly Hammersmith who was popularly associated with a falcon, and the great Hammersmith or Vulcan may be connoted with the Golden _Falcon_, whose memory has seemingly been preserved in Hammersmith at Goldhawk Road.

When Giraldus Cambrensis visited the shrine of the glorious Brigit at Kildare he was told the tale of a marvellous lone hawk or falcon popularly known as "Brigit's Bird". This beauteous tame falcon is reported to have existed for many centuries, and customarily to have perched on the summit of the Round Tower of Kildare.[461] Doubtless this story was the parallel of a fairy-tale current at Pharsipee in Armenia. "There," says Maundeville, "is found a sparrow-hawk upon a fair perch, and a fair lady of fairie, who keeps it; and whoever will watch that sparrow-hawk seven days and seven nights, and, as some men say, three days and three nights, without company and without sleep, that fair lady shall give him, when he hath done, the first wish that he will wish of earthly things; and that hath been proved oftentimes."[462]

Goldhawk Road at Hammersmith is supposedly an ancient Roman Road, and in 1884 the remains of a causeway were uncovered. Both _road_ and _route_ are the same word as the British _rhod_, and Latin _rota_ meaning a wheel, and it is likely that the term roadway meant primarily a route along which _rotæ_ or wheels might travel: as _rotten_ would be the ancient plural of _rot_, Rottenrow may thus simply have meant a roadway for wheeled traffic. According to Borlase the British fighting chariot was a _rhod_, the rout of this traffic presumably caused _ruts_ upon the route, whence it is quite likely that Rotten Row was a rutty and foul thoroughfare. The ordinary supposition that this title is a corruption of _route du roi_ may possibly have some justification, for immediately opposite is Kingston House, and at one time Rotten Row was known as the King's Road: originally the world of fashion used to canter round a circular drive or ring of trees, some of which are still carefully preserved on the high ground near the present Tea House, and thus it might reasonably follow that Rotten Row was a corrupted form of _rotunda_ row.

Opposite to Rotten Row are Rutland Gate and Rutland House, where lived the Dukes of Rutland, anciently written Roteland. Rutlandshire neighbours Leicester, a town known to the Romans under the name of Ratae; Leicestershire is watered by the river Welland, and in Stukeley's time there existed in a meadow near Ratae "two great banks called _Raw_dikes, which speculators look on as unaccountable".[463] That Leicester or Ratae paid very high reverence to the horse may be inferred from the fact that here the annual Riding of the George was one of the principal solemnities of the town, and one which the inhabitants were bound legally to attend. In addition to the Rottenrows at Kensington and Lewes there is a Rottenrow in Bucks, and a Rottenrow near Reading, all of which, together with Rottenrow Tower near Alnwick, must be considered in combination.

Redon figures as a kingly name among the British chronologies, and as horses are associated so intimately with the various Rotten Rows, the name Redon may be connoted with Ruadan, a Celtic "saint" who is said to have presented King Dermot with thirty sea-green horses which rose from the sea at his bidding. Sea horses are a conspicuous feature on the coins of the Redones who dwelt in Gaul and commanded the mouth of the Loire.[464] The horse was certainly at home at Canterbury where Rodau's Town is in immediate proximity to what is now called Riding Gate.

There is a river Roden at Wroxeter, a river Roding in Essex; Yorkshire is divided into three divisions called Ridings, and in East Riding, in the churchyard of the village of Rudstone, there stands a celebrated monolith which is peculiar inasmuch as its depth underground was said to equal its height above.[465] There is another Rudstone near Reading Street, Kent, and the Givon's Grove near Epsom is either in or immediately adjacent to a district known as Wrydelands. To _ride_ was once presumably to play the rôle of the Kentaur Queen, whether _equine_ as represented in the Coventry Festival or as riding in a triumphal _biga_, _rhod_, _wain_ or _wagon_. That such riding was once a special privilege is obvious from the statement of Tacitus: "She claimed a right to be conveyed in her carriage to the Capitol; a right by ancient usage allowed only to the sacerdotal order, the vestal virgins, and the statues of the gods".[466]

That the Lady of Coventry was the Coun or Queen is possibly implied by the _Coun_don within the borough of modern Coventry which also embraces a Foleshill,[467] and Radford.

The coins of the Gaulish Rotomagi, whose headquarters were the Rouen district, depict the horse not merely cantering but galloping apace, whence obviously the Rotomagi were an equine or Ecuina people. With their coins inscribed Ratumacos may be compared the coinage of the Batavian Magusæ which depicts "a sea horse to the right," and is inscribed MAGUS.[468] Magus, as we have seen, was a title of the Wandering Geho, Jehu, or Jew, and he may here be connoted with the "Splendid Mane" which figures under the name Magu, particularly in Slav fairy-tale:--

Magu, Horse with Golden Mane,
I want your help yet once again,
Walk not the earth but fly through space
As lightnings flash and thunders roll,
Swift as the arrow from the bow
Come quick, yet so that none may know.[469]

The French _roue_ meaning a wheel, and _rue_, a roadway, are probably not decayed forms of the Latin _rota_ but _ruder_, more _rudimentary_, and more _radical_: like the Candian Rhea, the Egyptian Ra or Re, and our _ray_, they are probably the Irish _rhi_, the Spanish _rey_, and the French _roi_.

There is a river Rea in Shropshire and a second river Rea upon which stands _Bir_mingham: that this Rea was connected with the Candian Rhea is possible from the existence at Birmingham of a Canwell, or Canewell. Near Cambourne, or Cam_bre_, is the _rhe druth_ (Redruth) which the authorities decode into stream of the Druids. Running through the village of _Ber_riew in Wales, is a rivulet named the Rhiw, and rising on _Bar_don Hill, Leicestershire, is "the bright and clear little river Sence". As the word _mens_, or _mind_, is usually assigned to Minerva, Rhea was possibly the origin of _reason_, or St. Rhea, and to _Rhi Vera_ may be assigned _river_ and _revere_; a _reverie_ is a _brown_ study.

According to Persian philosophy the soul of man was fivefold in its essence, one-fifth being "the Roun, or Rouan, the principle of practical judgment, imagination, volition":[470] another fifth, "the Okho or principle of conscience," seemingly corresponds to what western philosophers termed the _Ego_ or _I myself_.

In the neighbourhood of Brough in Westmorland is an ancient cross within an ancient camp, known as Rey Cross, and that Leicester or Ratae--which stands upon the antique _Via Devana_ or Divine Way--was intimately related with the Holy Rood is obvious from the modern Red Cross Street and High Cross Street.

The ruddy _Rood_ was no doubt radically the rolling four-spoked wheel, felloe, felly, periphery, or brim, and although perhaps Reading denoted as is officially supposed, "Town of the Children of Reada," the name Read, Reid, Rea, Wray, Ray, etc., did not only mean ruddy or red-haired. I question whether Ripon really owes its title as supposed to _ripa_, the Latin for bank of a stream.

The town hall of Reading is situated at Valpy Street in Forbury Gardens on what is known as The Forbury, seemingly the _Fire Barrow_ or prehistoric Forum, and doubtless a holy fire once burned ruddily at Rednal or Wredinhal near Bromsgrove. In Welsh _rhedyn_ means _fern_, whence the authorities translate Reddanick in Cornwall into the ferny place: the connection, however, is probably as remote and imaginary as that between Redesdale and reeds.

The place-name Rothwell, anciently Rodewelle, is no doubt with reason assumed to be "well of the rood or cross". Ruth means _pity_, and the ruddy cross of St. John, now (almost) universally sacrosanct to Pity, was, I think, probably the original Holy Rood. The knights of St. John possessed at Barrow in Leicester or Ratae a site now known as Rothley Temple, and as _th_, _t_, and _d_, are universally interchangeable it is likely that this Rothley was once _Roth lea_ or Rood Lea. Similarly Redruth, in view of the neighbouring Carn Bre, was probably not "Stream of the Druids," but an _abri_ of the Red Rood. The sacred rod or pole known generally as the Maypole was almost invariably surmounted by one or more _rotæ_, or wheels, and the name "Radipole rood" at Fulham (nearly opposite Epple St.) renders it likely that the Maypole was once known alternatively as the Rood Pole. From the Maypoles flew frequently the ruddy cross of Christopher or George.

In British mythology there figures a goddess of great loveliness named Arianrod, which means in Welsh the "Silver Wheel": the Persians held that their Jupiter was the whole circuit of heaven, and Arianrhod, or "Silver Wheel," was undoubtedly the starry _welkin_, the Wheel Queen, or the Vulcan of Good Law. With Wayland Smith may be connoted the river Welland of Rutland and Rataeland.

Silver, a white metal,[471] was probably named after Sil Vera, the Princess of the Silvery Moon and Silvery Stars. Silver Street is a common name for _old_ roads in the south of England:[472] Aubrey Walk in Kensington, is at the summit of a Silver Street, and the prime Aubrey de Vere of this neighbourhood was, I suspect, the same ghost as originally walked Auber's Ridge in Picardy, and the famous French _Chemin des Dames_. France is the land of the Franks,[473] and near Frankton in Shropshire at Ellesmere, _i.e._, the Elle, Fairy, or Holy mere, are the remains of a so-called Ladies Walk. This extraordinary _Chemin des Dames_, the relic evidently of some old-time ceremony, is described as a paved causeway running far into the mere, with which more than forty years ago old swimmers were well acquainted. It could be traced by bathers until they got out of their depth. How much farther it might run they of course knew not. Its existence seems to have been almost forgotten until, in 1879, some divers searching for the body of a drowned man came upon it on the bottom of the mere, and this led to old inhabitants mentioning their knowledge of it.[474]

England abounds in Silverhills, Silverhowes, Silverleys, Silvertowns, Silverdales, and Perryvales. By Silverdale at Sydenham is Jews Walk, and on Branch Hill at Hampstead is a fine prospect known as Judges Walk: here is Holly Bush Hill and Holly Mound, and opposite is Mount Vernon, to be connoted with Dur_overnon_, the ancient name of Canterbury or Rodau's Town.

Jews Walk, and the Grove at Upper Sydenham, are adjacent to Peak Hill, which, in all probability, was once upon a time Puck's Hill, and the wooded heights of Sydenham were in all likelihood a caer _sidi_, or seat of fairyland.

My chair is prepared in Caer Sidi
The disease of old age afflicts none who is there.
. . . . . . . . . . .
About its peaks are the streams of ocean
And above it is a fruitful fountain.

Sir John Morris-Jones points out that _sidi_ is the Welsh equivalent of the Irish _sid_, "fairyland"[475] and he connects the word with _seat_. In view of this it is possible that St. Sidwell at Exeter was like the River Sid at Sidmouth, a _caer sidi_, or seat of the _shee_.

Sydenham, like the Phoenician Sidon, is probably connected with Poseidon, or Father Sidon, and Rhode the son of Poseidon may be connoted with Rhadamanthus, the supposed twin brother of Minos. Near Canterbury is Rhodesminnis, or Rhode Common,[476] and on this common Justice was doubtless once administered by the representatives of Rhadamanthus, who was praised by all men for his wisdom, piety, and equity. It is said that Rhode was driven to Crete by Minos, and was banished to an Asiatic island where he made his memory immortal by the wisdom of his laws: Rhode, whose name is _rhoda_, the rose or Eros, is further said to have instructed Hercules in virtue and wisdom, and according to Homer he dwells not in the underworld but in the Elysian Fields.

FIG. 261.--From _A Short Account of the Records of
Richborough_ (W. D.).]

A rose coin of Rhoda was reproduced _ante_, page 339; the _rhoda_ or rose, like the _rood_, is a universal symbol of love, and with Rodau's Town, Canterbury, or Durovernon, which is permeated with the rose of St. George, or _Oros_, _i.e._, _rose_, may be connoted the neighbouring _Rutu_piae, now Richborough. From the ground-plan of this impressive ruin it will be seen to be unlike anything else in Europe, inasmuch as it originally consisted of a quadrangle surrounding a massive rood or cross imposed upon a titanic foundation.[477]

With Rutupiae, of which the _Rutu_ may be connoted with the _rood_ within its precincts, Mr. Roach Smith, in his _Antiquities of Richborough_, connotes the Gaulish people known as the Ruteni. The same authority quotes Malebranche as writing "all that part of the coast which lies between Calais and Dunkirk our seamen now call Ruthen," whence it is exceedingly likely that the Reading Street near Broadstairs, and the Rottingdean near Brighton were originally inhabited by children of Reada or Rota.

Apparently "Rotuna" was in some way identified in Italy with Britain, or _natione Britto_, for according to Thomas an inscription was discovered at Rome, near Santa Maria _Rotuna_, bearing in strange alphabetical characters NATIONE BRITTO, somewhat analogous at first sight to Hebrew, Greek, or Phoenician letters.[478]

From the plan it will be seen that the northern arm of the Rutupian rood points directly to the high road, and Rutupiæ itself constitutes the root or radical of the great main route leading directly through Rodau's Town, and Rochester to London Stone. The arms of Rochester or _Duro_brivum--where, as will be remembered, is a Troy Town--are St. Andrew on his _roue_ Or _rota_.

The name _Durobrivæ_ was also applied by the Romans to the Icenian town of Caistor, where it is locally proverbial that,

Caister was a city when Norwich was none,
And Norwich was built of Caistor stone.

There is a second Caistor which the Romans termed Venta Icenorum: the neighbouring modern Ancaster, the Romans entitled Causeimei. It is always taken for granted that the numerous _chesters_, _casters_, _cesters_ of this country are the survivors of some Roman _castra_ or fort. Were this actually the case it is difficult to understand why the Romans called Chester _Deva_, Ancaster _Causeimei_, Caistor _Durobrivæ_, and Rochester _Durobrivum_: in any case the word _castra_ has to be accounted for, and I think it will be found to be traceable to some prehistoric Judgment Tree, Cause Tree, Case Tree, or Juge Tree. No one knows exactly how "Zeus" was pronounced, but in any case it cannot have been rigid, and in all probability the vocalisation varied from _juice_ to _sus_, and from _juge_ to _jack_ and _cock_.[479]

The rider of a race-horse is called a _jockey_, and the child in the nursery is taught to

Ride a _cock_ horse to Banbury Cross
To see a white lady ride on a white horse.

An English CAC horse is illustrated on page 453, and the White Lady of Banbury who careered to the music of her bells was very certainly the Fairy Queen whom Thomas the Rhymer describes as follows: "Her Steed was of the highest beauty and spirit, and at his mane hung thirty silver bells and nine, which made music to the wind as she paced along. Her saddle was of ivory, laid over with goldsmiths' work: her stirrups, her dress, all corresponded with her extreme beauty and the magnificence of her array. The fair huntress had her bow in hand, and her arrows at her belt. She led three greyhounds in a leash, and three hounds of scent followed her closely."

This description might have been written of Diana, in which connection it may be noted that at Doncaster (British Cair Daun), the hobby horse used to figure as "the Queen's Pony". Epona, the Celtic horse-goddess, may be equated with the Chanteur or Centaur illustrated on so many of our "degraded" British coins, and Banstead Downs, upon which Ep's Home stands, may be associated with _Epona_, and with the shaggy little _ponies_[480] which ranged in _Epping_ Forest. Banstead, by Epsom (in Domesday Benestede), is supposed to have meant "bean-place or store": at Banwell in Somerset, supposed to have meant "pool of the bones," there is an earthwork cross which seemingly associates this Banwell with Banbury Cross, and ultimately to the cross of Alban.

The bells on the fingers and bells on the White Lady's toes may be connoted with the silver bell of the value of 3s. 4d., which in 1571 was the prize awarded at Chester--a town of the Cangians or Cangi--to the horse "which with speede of runninge then should run before all others".[481]

With this Chester Meeting may be noted Goodwood near Chichester. Chichester is in Sussex, and was anciently the seat of the Regni, a people whose name implies they were followers of _re gni_ or Regina, but the authorities imagine that Chichester, the county town of Sussex, owes its name to a Saxon Cissa, who also bestowed his patronymic on Cissbury Ring, the famous oval entrenchment near Broadwater. At Cissbury Ring, the largest and finest on the South Downs, great numbers of Neolithic relics have been found, and the name may be connoted with Chisbury Camp near Avebury.

Near Stockport is Geecross, supposedly so named from "an ancient cross erected here by the Gee family". Presumably that Geecross was the _chi_ cross or the Greek _chi_: the British name for Chichester was Caer _Kei_,[482] which means the fortress of Kei, but at more modern Chichester the famous Market Cross was probably a jack, for the four main streets of Chichester still stand in the form of the jack or red rood. The curious surname Juxon is intimately connected with Chichester; there is an inscription at Goodwood relating to a British ruler named Cogidumnus[483]--apparently _Cogi dominus_ or _Cogi Lord_--whence it seems probable that Chichester or Chichestra (1297) was as it is to-day an _assize_ or _juges_ tree, or even possibly a jockey's _tre_.

The adjacent Goodwood being equivalent to _Jude wood_, it is worthy of notice that Prof. Weekley connotes the name Judson with Juxon. His words are: "The administration of justice occupied a horde of officials from the Justice down to the Catchpole.[484] The official title _Judge_ is rarely found, and this surname is usually from the female name Judge, which like Jug was used for Judith and later for Jane.

"Janette, Judge, Jennie; a woman's name (Cotgrave). The names Judson and Juxon sometimes belong to these."[485]

The word _Chester_ is probably the same as the neighbouring place-name _Goo_strey-_cum_-Barnshaw in _Che_shire, and the Barn shaw or Barn hill here connected with Goostrey may be connoted with Loch Goosey near Barhill in Ayrshire.

Chi or Jou, who may be equated with the mysterious but important St. Chei of Cornwall, was probably also once seated at Chee Dale in Derbyshire, at Chew Magna, and Chewton, as well as at the already mentioned Jews Walk and Judges Walk near London.

In Devonshire is a river Shobrook which is authoritatively explained as Old English for "brook of _Sceocca_, _i.e._, the devil, Satan! _cf._ Shuckburgh": on referring we find Shuckburgh meant--"Nook and castle of the Devil, _i.e._, Scucca, Satan, a Demon, Evil Spirit; _cf._ Shugborough". I have not pursued any inquiries at Shugborough, but it is quite likely that the Saxons regarded the British Shug or Shuck with disfavour: there is little doubt he was closely related to "Old Shock," the phantom-dog, and the equally unpopular "Jack up the Orchard". In some parts of England Royal Oak Day is known as Shick Shack Day,[486] and in Surrey children play a game of giant's stride, known as Merritot or Shuggy Shaw.[487]

Merrie Tot was probably once Merrie Tod or Tad, and Shuggy Shaw may reasonably be modernised as Shaggy Jew or Shaggy Joy. It will be remembered that the Wandering Jew, _alias_ Elijah, wore a shag gown (_ante_, p. 148): this shagginess no doubt typified the radiating beams of the Sun-god, and it may be connoted with the shaggy raiment and long hair of John the Baptist. As shaggy Pan, "the President of the Mountains," almost certainly gave his name to _pen_, meaning a hill, it may be surmised that _shaw_, meaning a wooded hill, is allied to Shuggy Shaw. The surname Bagshaw implies a place-name which originated from Bog or Bogie Shaw: but Bagshawes Cavern at Bradwell, near Buxton,[488] is suggestive of a cave or Canhole[489] attributed to Big Shaw, and the neighbouring _Tide_swell is agreeably reminiscent of Merrie _Tot_ or Shuggy Shaw.

In connection with _jeu_, a game, may be connoted _gewgaw_, in Mediæval English _giuegoue_: the pronunciation of this word, according to Skeat, is uncertain, and the origin unknown; he adds, "one sense of _gewgaw_ is a Jew's Harp; _cf._ Burgundian _gawe_, a Jew's Harp".

Virgil, in his description of a Trojan _jeu_ or _show_, observes--

This contest o'er, the good Æneas sought,
A grassy plain, with waving forests crowned
And sloping hills--fit theatre for sport,
Where in the middle of the vale was found
A circus. Hither comes he, ringed around
With thousands, here, amidst them, throned on high
In rustic state, he seats him on a mound,
And all who in the footrace list to vie,
With proffered gifts invites, and tempts their souls to try.[490]

It will be noted that the _juge_ or showman seats himself amid shaws, upon a toothill or barrow, and doubtless just such eager crowds as collected round Æneas gathered in the ancient hippodrome which once occupied the surroundings of St. John's Church by Aubrey Walk, Kensington. "St John's Church," says Mitton, "stands on a hill, once a grassy mound within the hippodrome enclosure, which is marked in a contemporary map 'Hill for pedestrians,' apparently a sort of natural grand-stand."[491] A large tract of this district was formerly covered by a race-course known as the hippodrome. "It stretched," continues Mitton, "northward in a great ellipse, and then trended north-west and ended up roughly where is now the Triangle at the west-end of St. Quintin Avenue. It was used for both flat-racing and steeplechasing, and the steeplechase course was more than 2 miles in length. The place was very popular being within easy reach of London, but the ground was never very good for the purpose as it was marshy."[492]

That the grassy mound or natural grand-stand of St. John was once sacred to the divine Ecne, Chinea, or Hackney, and that this King John or King Han was symbolised by an Invictus or prancing courser is implied from the lines of a Bardic poet: "Lo, he is brought from the firm enclosure with his light-coloured bounding steeds--even the sovereign ON, the ancient, the generous Feeder".[493] We have seen that in Ireland Sengann meant Old Gann, and that "Saint" John of Kensington was originally Sinjohn, Holy John, or Elgin, seems to be somewhat further implied from the neighbouring Elgin Crescent, Elgin Avenue, and Howley Street.

The Fulham place almost immediately adjacent, considered in conjunction with Fowell Street, suggests that here, as at the more western Fulham, was a home of Foals or wild Fowl, or perhaps of Fal, the Irish Centaur-god.

The sovereign On, the ancient Courser "of the blushing purple and the potent number," was mighty _Hu_, whose name New, or _Ancient Yew_, is, I think, perpetuated at Newbury--where _Hew_son is still a family name--at Newington Padox (said to be for _paddocks_) in Warsickshire, at Newington near Wye, in Kent, and possibly at other _New_markets or tons, which are intimately associated with horse-racing. With the river Noe in Derbyshire may be connoted Noe, the British form of Noah: The Newburns in Scotland and Northumberland can hardly have been so named because they were novel or new rivers, and in view of the fact that British mythology combined Noah's ark (Welsh _arch_) with a mare, it may be questioned whether the place-name Newark (originally Newarcha), really meant as at present supposed _New Work_.[494] It may be that the Trojan horse story was purely mythological, and had originally relation to the supposition that mankind all emerged from the body of the Solar Horse.

The Kensington Hippodrome was eventually closed down on account of the noise and disorders which arose there, and one may safely assume there was always a certain amount of _rude_ness and _rowd_iness among the _rout_ at all hippodromes. Had Herr Cissa, the imaginary Saxon to whom the authorities so generously ascribe Cissbury Ring, Chichester, and many other places, been present on some prehistoric Whit Monday, doubtless like any other personage of importance he would have arrived at Kensington seated in a _reidi_--the equivalent of the British _rhod_. And if further, in accordance with Teutonic wont, Cissa had sneered at the shaggy little _keffils_[495] of the British, certainly some keen Icenian[496] would have pointed out that not only was the _keffil_ or _cafall_ a horse of very distinguished antiquity, but that the word _cafall_ reminded him agreeably of the Gaulish _cheval_ and the Iberian _cabal_, both very chivalrous or cavalryous old words suggestive of _valiant_, _valid_, and strong Che or Jou.

Hereupon some young Cockney would inevitably have uttered the current British byword--

For acuteness and valour the Greeks
For excessive pride the Romans
_For dulness the creeping Saxons_.[497]

Unless human nature is very changeable Herr Cissa would then have delivered himself somewhat as follows: "It is really coming to this, that we Germans, the people to whose exquisite Kultur the nations of Europe and of America, too, owe the fact that they no longer consist of hordes of ape-like savages roaming their primordial forests, are about to allow ourselves to be dictated to."[498]

Irritated by the allusion to ape-like savages one may surmise that a jockey of Chichestra inquired whether Herr Cissa claimed the river Cuckmere and also Cuckoo- or _Houn_dean-Bottom, the field in which Lewes racecourse stands? He might also have insinuated that the White Horse cut in the downs below _Hinover_[499] in the Cuckmere valley was there long before the inhabitants of _Hanover_ adopted it as a totem, and that the Juxons were just as much entitled to the sign of the Horse as the Saxons of Saxony, or Sachsen. To this Herr Cissa would have replied that the White Horse at Uffington was a "deplorable abortion," and that its barbaric design was "a slander on the Saxon standard". Hereupon a yokel from Cuckhamsley Hill, near Zizeter, sometimes known as Cirencester, probably inquired with a chuckle whether Herr Cissa claimed every Jugestree, Tree of Justice, Esus Tree, Assize or Assembly Tree in the British Islands? He pertinently added that in Cirencester, or Churncester, they were in the habit of celebrating at Harvest Home the festival of the Kernababy, or Maiden, which he always understood represented the Corn baby, elsewhere known as the Ivy Girl, or "Sweet Sis". This youth had a notion that Sweet Sis, or the Lady of the Corn[500] was somehow connected with his native Cirencester, or Zizeter, and he produced a token or coin upon which the well coiffured head of a _chic_ little maiden or fairy queen was portrayed.[501]

An Icenian charioteer, who explained that his people alternatively termed themselves the _Jugan_tes,[502] also produced a medal which he said had been awarded him at Caistor, pointing out that the spike of Corn was the sign of the Kernababy, that the legend under the hackney read CAC, and that he rather thought the white horse of the Cuckmere valley and also the one by Cuckhamsley were representations of the same Cock Horse.[503] He added that he had driven straight from Goggeshall in his gig--a kind of _coach_ similar to that in which the living image of his All Highest used of old time to be ceremoniously paraded.

Herr Cissa hereupon maintained that it was impossible for anyone to drive straight anywhere in a gig, for it was an accepted axiom of the science of language that the word gig, "probably of imitative origin," meant "to take a wrong direction, to rove at random".[504] At this juncture a venerable _columba_ from St. Columbs, Nottinghill, intervened and produced an authentic Life of the Great St. Columba, wherein is recorded an incident concerning the holy man's journey in a gig without its linch pins. "On that day," he quoted, "there was a great strain on it over long stretches of road," nevertheless "the car in which he was comfortably seated moved forward without mishap on a straight course."[505]

In view of this feat, and of an illustration of the type of vehicle in which the journey was supposedly accomplished, it was generally accepted that Herr Cissa's definition of _gig_ was fantastic, whereupon the Saxon, protesting, "You do not care one iota for our gigantic works of Kultur and Science, for our social organisation, for our Genius!" asserted the dignity of his _gig_ definition by whipping up his horses, taking a wrong direction, and roving at random from the enclosure.

FOOTNOTES:

[400] With Ecne may be connoted _ech_, the Irish for _horse_.

[401] _Irish Myth. Cycle_, p. 82.

[402] _Germania_, x.

[403] "The senses of the horse are acute though many animals excel
it in this respect, but its faculties of observation and
memory are both very highly developed. A place once visited
or a road once traversed seems never to be forgotten, and
many are the cases in which men have owed life and safety to
these faculties in their beasts of burden. Even when
untrained it is very intelligent: horses left out in winter
will scrape away the snow to get at the vegetation beneath
it, which cattle are never observed to do."--Chambers's
_Encyclopædia_, v., 792.

[404] Bayley, H., _The Lost Language of Symbolism_, vol. ii. _Cf._
chapter, "The White Horse".

[405] _Nauticaa Mediterranea_, Rome, 1601.

[406] Brock, M., _The Cross: Heathen and Christian_, p. 64.

[407] "The oak, tallest and fairest of the wood, was the symbol of
Jupiter. The manner in which the principal tree in the grove
was consecrated and ordained to be the symbol of Jupiter was
as follows: The Druids, with the general consent of the whole
order, and all the neighbourhood pitched upon the most
beautiful tree, cut off all its side branches and then joined
two of them to the highest part of the trunk, so that they
extended themselves on either side like the arms of a man,
making in the whole the shape of a cross. Above the
insertions of these branches and below, they inscribed in the
bark of the tree the word Thau, by which they meant God. On
the right arm was inscribed Hesus, on the left Belenus, and
on the middle of the trunk Tharamus."--Quoted by Borlase in
_Cornwall_ from "the learned Schedius".

[408] _Ancient British Coins_, p. 49.

[409] _The Coin Collector_, p. 159.

[410] _Numismatic Manual_, p. 225.

[411] Jewitt, L., _English Coins and Tokens_, p. 4.

[412] Head, Barclay, V., _A Guide to the Coins of the Ancients_, p.
1 (B. M.).

[413] Akerman, J. Y., _Numismatic Manual_, p. 228.

[414] Akerman, J. Y., _Numismatic Manual_, p. 10.

[415] The earliest "Lady" of Byzantium was the fabulous daughter of
Io, _Cf._ Schliemann, _Mykene_.

[416] Macdonald, G., _The Evolution of Coinage_, p. 5.

[417] Macdonald, G., _The Evolution of Coinage_, p. 9.

[418] According to Skeat _jingle_, "a frequentative verb from the
base _jink_," is allied to _chink_, and _chink_ is "an
imitative word".

[419] Munro, Dr. Robt., _Prehistoric Britain_, p. 45. The italics
are mine.

[420] Johnson, W., _Folk Memory_, p. 321.

[421] _Bella Gallico_, Bk. IV.

[422] _Crete, the Forerunner of Greece_, p. 72.

[423] _Iliad_, XX., 570-80.

[424] "It's you English who don't know your own language, otherwise
you would realise that most of what you call 'Yankeeisms' are
merely good old English which you have thrown away."--J.
Russell Lowell.

[425] As illustrated _ante_, p. 381.

[426] _Illustrated London News_, 10th August, 1918.

[427] _Cf._ _Troy_, p. 353; _Ilios_, 619.

[428] Il., lix.

[429] Hawes, C. H. and H. B., _Crete the Forerunner of Greece_, p.
44.

[430] _Æneid_, Book II., 111.

[431] _Ibid._, 20.

[432] Johnson, W., _Byways_, 419.

[433] _Sepulchres of Ancient Etruria_, p. 10.

[434] Johnston, Rev. W. B., _Place-names of England and Wales_, p.
2.

[435] Morris-Jones, Sir J., _Taliesin_, p. 32.

[436] Guest, Dr., _Origines Celticæ_, ii., 218-27.

[437] Fraser, J. B., _Persia_.

[438] There is an Uffington in Lincoln on the river Welland.

[439] _Holy Wells_, p. 102.

[440] Allcroft, A. Hadrian, _Earthwork of England_, p. 136.

[441] P. 16.

[442] Carey, Miss E. F., _Folklore_, xxv., No. 4, p. 417.

[443] Mitton, C. F., _Kensington_, p. 58.

[444] _Iliad_, XX., 246, 262.

[445] The first lessee of the Manor at Kensington, now known as
Holland Park, was a certain Robert Horseman. Holland House
being built in a swamp, or _holland_, may owe its title to
that fact or to its having been erected by a Dutchman. The
Bog of _Allen_ in Ireland is authoritatively equated with
_holland_.

[446] This information was given me verbally by Miss Mary George of
Sennen Cove.

[447] Zennor is understood to have meant _Holy Land_.

[448] _Proc. of Roy. Ir. Acad._, xxxiv., C., 10-11, p. 376.

[449] Fraser, J.B., _Persia_, p. 132.

[450] According to Johnston, Felixstowe was the church of St. Felix
of Walton, sometimes said to be _stow_ of Felix, first bishop
of East Anglia. "But this does not agree with the form in
1318 Filthstowe which might be 'filth place,' place full of
dirt or foulness. This is not likely" (p. 259).

[451] _Cf._ _Holy Wells._

[452] The numerous British Cranbrooks and Cranbournes are assumed
to have been the haunts of cranes.

[453] Allcroft, A. Hadrian, _Earthwork of England_, p. 462.

[454] Johnson, W., _Folk Memory_, p. 321.

[455] Domesday Branchtrea, later Branktry. "This must be 'tree of
_Branc_,' the same name as in Branksome (Bournemouth),
Branxton (Coldstream), and Branxholm (Hawick)."--Johnston, J.
B., _Place-names of England and Wales_, p. 165.

[456] _A Guide to the Antiquities of the Iron Age_ (Brit. Museum),
p. 35.

[457] _Ep_ in old Breton meant _horse_; _cf. Origines Celticæ_, i.,
373, 380, 381.

[458] _Celtic Britain_, p. 229.

[459] 1158 Brimigham; 1166 Bremingeham; 1255 Burmingeham; 1413
Brymecham; 1538 Bromieham.

[460] _Ancient Britain_, p. 282.

[461] _Historical Works_ (Bohn's Library), p. 98.

[462] _Travels in the East_ (Bohn's Library), p. 202.

[463] _Avebury and Stonehenge_, p. 43.

[464] _A Guide to the Antiquities of the Iron Age_, p. 29.

[465] Higgens, G., _Celtic Druids_, p. lxxiv.

[466] _Annals_, Bk. xii, xii.

[467] In 1200 Folkeshull. Of Flixton in Lancashire the authorities
suggest, "perhaps a town of the flitch". Of Flokton in
Yorkshire, "Town of an unrecorded Flocca". I suspect Flokton
was really a Folk Dun or Folks Hill.

[468] Akerman, p. 166.

[469] _Slav Tales_, p. 182.

[470] Fraser, J. B., _Persia_, p. 134.

[471] The word _silver_ is imagined to be derived from _Salube_, a
town on the Black Sea.

[472] Johnston, J. B., _Place-names_, p. 445.

[473] The Frankish chroniclers assigned the origin of the Franks to
Troy. The word _Frank_ is radically feran or veran.

[474] Hope, R. C., _Holy Wells_, p. 137.

[475] _Taliesin_, p. 238.

[476] _Minnis_, said to be a Kentish word for _common_, is
seemingly the latter portion of _communis_.

[477] "Within the area towards the north-east corner is a solid
rectangular platform of masonry, 145 feet by 104 feet, and 5
feet in thickness. In the centre there is a structure of
concrete in the form of a cross, 87 feet in length, 7 feet 6
inches wide, which points to the north. The transverse arm,
47 feet long and 22 feet wide, points to the gateway in the
west wall. The platform rests upon a mass of masonry reaching
downward about 30 feet from the surface, it measures 124 feet
north to south and 80 feet east to west. At each corner there
are holes 5 to 6 inches square, penetrating through the
platform. A subterranean passage, 5 feet high, 3 feet wide,
has been excavated under the overhanging platform, around the
foundation beneath, which may be entered by visitors.

"The efforts that have been made to pierce the masonry have
failed in ascertaining whether there are chambers inside. No
satisfactory explanation of its origin and purpose has yet
been discovered. It may have formed the foundation of a
'pharos'. The late C. R. Smith, whose opinion on the subject
is of especial value, and also later authorities, have
thought that this remarkable structure enclosed receptacles
either for the storage of water, or for the deposit of
treasure awaiting shipment."--_A Short Account of the Records
of Richborough_ (W. D.).

[478] _Britannia Antiquissima_, p. 5.

[479] This on the face of it looks far-fetched, but the
intermediate forms may easily be traced, and the suggestion
is really more rational than the current claim that _fir_ and
_quercus_ are the "same word".

[480] Statues of Epona represent her seated "between foals".
_Ancient Britain_, p. 279.

[481] A small bell swinging in a circle may often be seen to-day as
a "flyer" ornament on the heads of London carthorses.

[482] Guest, Dr., _Origines Celticæ_, ii., p. 159.

[483] Tacitus in _Agricola_ gives Cogidumnus an excellent reference
to the following effect: "Certain districts were assigned to
Cogidumnus, a king who reigned over part of the country. He
lived within our own memory, preserving always his faith
unviolated, and exhibiting a striking proof of that refined
policy, with which it has ever been the practice of Rome to
make even kings accomplices in the servitude of mankind."

[484] This functionary is said to have acquired his title by
distraining on, or catching the people's pullets.

[485] _The Romance of Names_, p. 184.

[486] Hazlitt, W. C., _Faiths and Folklore_, ii., 543.

[487] _Ibid._, ii., 408.

[488] At _Bick_ley (Kent) is _Shaw_field Park.

[489] The neighbouring "Canholes" will be considered in a later
chapter.

[490] _Æneid_, Bk. V., 39.

[491] _Kensington_, p. 89.

[492] _Ibid._, p. 89.

[493] Davies, E., _Mytho. of Ancient Druids_, p. 528.

[494] The oldest church in Ireland (the Oratory of Gallerus) is
described as exactly like an upturned boat, and the _nave_ or
_ship_ of every modern sanctuary perpetuates both in form and
name the ancient notion of Noah's Ark, or the Ark of Safety.
The ruins of Newark Priory, near Woking, are situated in a
marshy mead amid seven branches of the river Wey which even
now at times turn the site into a swamp. There is a Newark in
Leicestershire and a Newark in St. John's Parish,
Peterborough; here the land is flat and mostly arable. At
Newark, in Notts, the situation was seemingly once just such
a wilderness of waters as surrounded Newark Priory, in Send
Parish, Woking. The ship of Isis, symbolizing the fecund Ark
of Nature, figured prominently in popular custom, and the
subject demands a chapter at the very least.

[495] _Keffil_ meaning _horse_ is still used in Worcestershire, and
Herefordshire. "This is a pure Welsh word nor need one feel
much surprised at finding it in use in counties where the
Saxon and the Brython must have had many dealings in horse
flesh. But what is significant is the manner in which it is
used, for it is employed only for horses of the poorest type,
or as a word of abuse from one person to another as when one
says--'you great keffil,' meaning you clumsy idiot."--Windle,
B. C. A., _Life in Early Britain_, p. 209.

[496] "The Icenians took up arms, a brave and warlike
people."--Tacitus, _Annals_.

[497] Windle, B. C. A., _Life in Early Britain_, p. 210.

[498] Quoted in _The Daily Express_, 9th October, 1918, from _Der
Rheinisch Westfalische Zeitung_.

[499] _Cf._ Johnson, W., _Folk Memory_, p. 326.

[500] The Cornish for _corn_ was _izik_.

[501] _Cf._ Fig. 358, p. 596.

[502] Evans, Sir J., _Ancient British Coins_, p. 404.

[503] "Under any circumstances the legend CAC on the reverse would
have still to be explained."--_Ibid._, p. 353.

[504] Skeat, p. 212.

[505] Huyshe, W., _Adamnan's Life of St. Columba_, p. 173.