Archaic England

As Biddy is a familiar form of Bridget or Bride, Biddenden may be understood as the dun or den of the Biddys, and the modern sense of our adjective _bad_ is, it is to be feared, an implication either that the followers of the Biddy's fell from grace, or that at any rate newer comers deemed them to have done so. The German for _both_ is _beide_, but that _both_ the _Bid_denden maidens were bad is unlikely: the brace of chickabiddies[382] ill.u.s.trated overleaf may perhaps have fallen a little short of the designer's ideals, yet they were undoubtedly deemed fit and good, otherwise they would not have survived. That their admirers, while seeing Both or Twain, wors.h.i.+pped Ane is obviously possible from the popular "Heathen chant" here quoted from Miss Eckenstein's _Comparative Study of Nursery Rhymes_:--

1. We will a' gae sing, boys, Where will we begin, boys?

We'll begin the way we should, And we'll begin at ane, boys.

O, what will be our ane, boys?

O, what will be our ane, boys?

--My only ane she walks alane, And evermair has dune, boys.

2. Now we will a' gae sing, boys; Where will we begin, boys?

We'll begin where we left aff, And we'll begin at twa, boys.

What will be our twa, boys?

--Twa's the lily and the rose That s.h.i.+ne baith red and green, boys, My only ane she walks alane, And evermair has dune, boys.

In the near neighbourhood of Biddenden are Peckham, Buckman's Green, Buckhill, and Buggles, or Boglesden: the two bogles now under consideration were possibly responsible for the neighbouring Duesden, _i.e._ the Dieu's den or the Two's den. According to Skeat the word _bad_, mediaeval _badde_, is formed from the Anglo-Saxon _baeddel_, meaning an hermaphrodite; all ancient deities seem to have been regarded as hermaphrodites, and it is impossible to tell from the Britannia, Bride, or Biddy figures on p. 120 whether Bru or Brut was a man or a maid. Apollo was occasionally represented in a skirt; Venus was sometimes represented with a beard; the beard on the obverse of No. 46, on p. 364, is highly accentuated, and that this feature was a peculiarity of c.u.mbrian belief is to be inferred from the life of Saint Unc.u.mber. St. Unc.u.mber, or _Old Queen Ber_, was one of the seven daughters born at a birth to the King of Portugal, and the story runs that her father wanting her to marry the prince of Sicily, she grew whiskers, "which so enraged him that he had her crucified".[383]

One may infer that the fabricator of this pious story concocted it from some picture of a bearded virgin extended like Andrew on the Solar wheel: close to Biddenden is Old Surrender, perhaps originally a den or shrine of Old _Sire_ Ander.[384]

At Broadstone, by Biddenden, we find Judge House, and doubtless the village _juge_ once administered justice at that broad stone. In Kent the paps are known colloquially as _bubs_ or _bubbies_: by Biddenden is a Pope's Hall, and a Bubhurst or Bubwood, which further permit the equation of the Preston Maids with Babs, Babby, or Barbara. St. Barbara was not only born at Heliopolis, but her tomb is described by Maundeville as being at Babylon, by which he means not Babylon in Chaldea, but Heliopolis in Egypt. In _The Welsh People_ Sir J. Morris Jones establishes many remarkable relations.h.i.+ps between the language of Wales and the Hamitic language of early Egypt; in 1881 Gerald Ma.s.sey published a list of upwards of 3000 similarities between British and Egyptian words[385]; and _In Malta and the Mediterranean Race_, Mr. R.

N. Bradley prints the following extraordinary statement from Col. W. G.

MacPherson of the Army Medical Service: "When I was in Morocco City, in 1896, I met a Gaelic-speaking missionary doctor who had come out there and went into the Sus country (Trans-atlas), where 'Shluh' is the language spoken, just as it is the language of the Berber tribes in the Cis-atlas country. He told me that the words seemed familiar to him, and, after listening to the natives speaking among themselves, found they were speaking a Gaelic dialect, much of which he could follow. This confirmed my own observation regarding the names of the Berber tribes I myself had come across, namely, the Bini M'Tir, the Bini M'Touga, and the Bini M'Ghil. The 'Bini' is simply the Arabic for 'Children of,' and is tacked on by the Arabs to the 'M' of the Berbers, which means 'sons of' and is exactly the same as the Irish 'M,' or Gaelic 'Mac'. Hence the M'Tir, M'Touga, and M'Ghil, become in our country MacTiers, the MacDougalls, and the MacGills. I prepared a paper on this subject which was read by my friend Dr. George Mackay of Edinburgh, at the Pan-Celtic Congress there in 1907, I think, or it may have been 1908. It caused a leading article to be written in the _Scotsman_, I believe, but otherwise it does not appear to have received much attention."

As it is an axiom of modern etymology to ignore any statements which cannot be squared with historical doc.u.ments it is hardly a matter of surprise that Col. MacPherson's statements have hitherto received no consideration. But apart from the fact that certain Berber tribes still speak Gaelic, the Berbers are a highly interesting people: they extend all over the North of Africa, and the country between Upper Egypt and Abyssinia is known as Barbara or Barba. The word _Africa_ was also written _Aparica_, and the Berbers, apart from founding the Old Kingdom of _Bornou_ and the city of Timbuctoo, had an important seat at _Berryan_. They had in the past magnificent and stately temples, used the Arabic alphabet, and the Touriacks--the purest, proudest, most numerous, and most lordly family of the Berbers--have an alphabet of their own for which they claim great antiquity: they have also a considerable native literature.[386] The Touriack alphabet is almost identical with that used by the Tyrians in later times, and the name Touriack is thus probably connected with Tyre and Troy. In 1821, a traveller described the Touriacks as "the finest race of men I ever saw--tall, straight, and handsome, with a certain air of independence and pride that is very imposing. They are generally white, that is to say, comparatively so, the dark brown of their complexion being occasioned only by the heat of the climate. Their arms and bodies, where constantly covered, are as white as those of many Europeans."[387]

To Britons the Berbers should be peculiarly interesting, as anthropologists have already declared that the primitive Scotch race were formed from "the great Iberian family, the same stock as the Berbers of North Africa": Laing and Huxley further affirm that among these Scotch aborigines they recognise the existence of men "of a very superior character".[388] It will probably prove that the "St. Barbe" of Gaul--a name connected with the megalithic monuments at Carnac--originated from Barba, or Berber influences: with this Gaulish St. Barbe may be connoted the fact that the pastors of the heretical Albigenses, whose headquarters were at the town of Albi, were for some unknown reason ent.i.tled _barbes_.

A traveller in 1845 describes the Berbers or Touriacks as very white, always clothed, and wearing pantaloons like Europeans. The word _pantaloon_ comes from Venice where the patron saint is St. Pantaleone, but the British for pantaloons is _breeks_ or _breeches_. It was a distinction of the British to wear breeks: Sir John Rhys attributes the word Briton to "cloth and its congeners," and when, _circa_ 500 B.C., the celebrated Abaris visited Athens his hosts were evidently impressed by his attire: "He came, not clad in skins like a Scythian, but with a bow in his hand, a quiver hanging on

I have suggested that Abaris or Abharas was a generic term for Druid or Chief Druid, and it is likely that the celebrated Arabian philosopher Averrhoes, who was born in Spain A.D. 1126, was ent.i.tled Averroes (his real name seems to have been Ibn Roshd) in respect of his famous philosophy: it is noteworthy that the Berbers were known alternatively as Barabbras.[390]

In No. 41, on p. 364, two small brethren are like Romulus and Remus sucking nourishment from a wolf. This animal is the supposed ancestor of all the dog-tribe: the word _wolf_ is _eu olf_, and the term _b.i.t.c.h_, applied to all females of the wolf tribe, is radically _pige_, _peggy_, or _Puck_. The b.i.t.c.h-nourished Brethren are radically _bre_, for the _-ther_ of _brother_ is the same adjective as occurs in fa_ther_, mo_ther_, and sis_ter_.

Taliesin, the mystic t.i.tle of the Welsh Chief Druid of the West, is translated as having meant _radiant brow_: the brow is the covering of the brain, and in No. 2, on p. 120, Britannia is pointing to her brow.

In No. 3 of the same plate she is represented in the remarkable and unusual att.i.tude of gazing up to Heaven: it will be remembered that, according to Caesar, Britain was the cradle of the Druidic Philosophy, and that those wis.h.i.+ng to perfect themselves in the system visited this country; that the Britons prided themselves on their brains is possibly the true inference to be drawn from the two curious coins now under consideration.

The President of Celtic poetry and bardic music is said to have been a being of gigantic height named Bran: it is to Bran the Blessed that tradition a.s.signs the introduction of the Cross into Britain, and when Bran died his head is stated to have been deposited under the White Tower of London, where it acted as a talisman against foreign aggression. One of the disastrous blunders alleged against King Arthur was the declaration that he disdained to hold the realm of England, except in virtue of his own prowess,[391] and Romance affirms that he disinterred the magic head of the Blessed Bran, thereby bringing untold woes upon the land. As a parallel to this story may be connoted the historic fact that when the Romans in 390 B.C. inquired the name of the barbaric general who had led the Celts victoriously against them, the Celtic officer replied by giving the name of the G.o.d to whom he attributed the success of his arms, and whom he figured to himself as seated invisible in a chariot, a javelin in his hand, while he guided the victorious host over the bodies of its enemies.[392] Now the name of this invisible chief under whom the Gaulish conquerors of Rome and Delphi claimed to fight, was Brennos, whom De Jubainville equates with Brian, the First of the Three divine Sons of Dana, or Brigit, the _Bona Dea_ of Britain. The highest town in France, and the princ.i.p.al a.r.s.enal and depot of the French Alps is ent.i.tled Briancon, and as this place was known to the Romans as Brigantium, we may connote Briancon with King Brian. Brigan may probably be equated with the fabulous Bregon of Hibernia, with Bergion of Iberia, and with St. Brychan of Wales, who is said to have been the parent of fifty sons and daughters, "all saints".

The Hibernian super-King, ent.i.tled Brian Boru, had his seat at Tara, and from him may be said to have descended all the O'Briens, the Brownes, and the Byrons. The name Burgoyne is a.s.signed to Burgundy, and it is probable that inquiry would prove a close connection between the Burgundii and giant Burgion of Iberia. In the Triads the Welsh prince Brychan is designated as sprung from one of the three holy families of Prydain: through Brecons.h.i.+re, or Brecknock, runs the river Bran; and that Awbrey was a family name in Brecon is implied by the existence in the priory church of St. John, or Holyrood, of tombs to the Awbreys.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 210.--Idols of the Bona Dea found at Troy. From _Ilios_ (Schliemann).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 211 to 213.--From British "chalk drums,"

ill.u.s.trated in British Museum's _Guide to Antiquities of Bronze Age_.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 214 to 219.--Mediaeval Papermarks from _Les Filigranes_ (Briquet, C. M.).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 220.--From _History of Paganism in Caledonia_ (Wise, T. A.).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 221.--The Creator, under the Form of Jesus Christ.

Italian Miniature of the close of the XII. Cent. From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

When the head of the beneficent and blessed Bran was deposited at London it is said to have rested there for a long time with the eyes looking towards France. One of the most remarkable and mysterious of the Pictish symbols, found alike in Picardy and Pictland generally, is the so-called b.u.t.terfly design of which three typical examples are here ill.u.s.trated. What it seems to represent is _Browen_ or the _Brows_, but it is also an excellent bird, b.u.t.terfly, or _papillon_: or as we speak familiarly of using our brains, and as the grey matter of the brain actually consists of two divisions, which scientists ent.i.tle the _cerebrum_ and the _cerebellum_, the two-browed b.u.t.terfly might not illogically be designated the brains. Both Canon Greenwell and Sir Arthur Evans have drawn attention to similar representations of the human face on early objects from Troy and the aegean; the same symbol is found on sculptured menhirs of the Marne and Gard valleys in France, while clay vessels with this ornament, belonging to the early age of metal, have been found in Spain. The "b.u.t.terfly" is seen on gold roundels from the earliest (shaft) graves at Mycenae, and as Sir Hercules Read has rightly said, "everything points to the transmission of that influence to the British Isles by way of Spain".[393]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 222.--The Trinity in One G.o.d, Supporting the World. Fresco of the Campo Santo of Pisa, XIV. Cent.

From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

The Scandinavians a.s.signed three eyes to Thor, and Thor, as has been seen, was attributed by them to Troy. On the stone ill.u.s.trated on p.

381, now built into the church at Dingwall--a name which means _court hill_--three circles are on one side and two upon the other: some of the Trojan idols are three-eyed and some are "b.u.t.terflies". Is it possible that this Elphin little face, or _papillon_, was the precursor of the modern cherub or Amoretto, and that it was the Puck of the Iberian Picts, who conceived their Babchild or Bacchild as peeping, _pry_ing, touting, and _peer_ing perpetually upon mankind? The ancients imagined that every worthy soul became a star, whence it is possible that the small blue flower we call a periwinkle was, like the daisy, a symbol of the fairy, phairy, or peri _peri_scope. In Devons.h.i.+re the speedwell (_Veronica +chamaedrys_) is known as Angels' Eyes; in Wales it is ent.i.tled the Eye of Christ:[394] the word _periwinkle_ may be connoted with the phairies Periwinkle, and Perriwiggen, who figure in the court of Oberon.

In the magnificent emblem here ill.u.s.trated the Pillar of the Universe, "to Whom all thoughts and desires are known, from Whom no secrets are hid," is supporting a great universe zoned round and round by Eyes, Cherubs, or Amoretti, and the earth within is represented by a cone or berg. In Fig. 221 the Creator is depicted as animating nine choirs of Amoretti by means of three rays or _breaths_, and as will be shown subsequently the creation of the world by means of three rays or beams of light from heaven was an elemental feature of British philosophy.

The periwinkle, known in some districts as the c.o.c.kle, may, I think, be regarded as a prehistoric symbol of the world-without-end query:--

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are.

The term c.o.c.kle was applied not only to the periwinkle and the poppy, but likewise to the burdock, whose p.r.i.c.kly _burrs_ are obviously a very perfect emblem of the Central Pyre, Fire, Burn, or Brand. In Italy the barberry, or berberis, is known as the Holy Thorn, as it is supposed that from this bush of _p.r.i.c.ks_ and p.r.i.c.kles was woven Christ's crown of thorns. As a home of the spooks the _brakes_ or _bracken_ rivalled the hawthorn,[395] and it was generally believed that by eating fern or bracken seed one became invisible. Witches were supposed to detest bracken, because it bears on its root the character C, the initial of the holy name Christ, "which may be plainly seen on cutting the root horizontally". Commenting on this belief the author of _Flowers and Folklore_ remarks: "A friend suggests, however, that the letter intended is not the English C, but the Greek X (Chi), the initial letter of the word _Christos_ which really resembles the marks on the root of the bracken."[396]

In Cornish _broch_ denoted the yew tree, the sanct.i.ty of which is implied by the frequency with which a brace or pair of yews are found in churchyards. The yew is probably the longest living of all trees, accredited instances occurring of its antiquity to the extent of 1400 years, and at Fortingal in _Perth_s.h.i.+re there is a famous yew tree which has been estimated to be 3000 years of age. This is deemed to be the most venerable specimen of living European vegetation, but at _Bra_bourne, in Kent, used to be a superannuated yew which claimed precedence in point of age even over that of Perths.h.i.+re. A third claimant (2000 years) is that at Hensor (the _ancient sire_?) in Buckinghams.h.i.+re, and a fourth exists at Buckland near Dover.[397]

The _yew_ (Irish _eo_), named in all probability after Io, or Hu the Jupiter,[398] or Ancient Sire of Britain, is found growing profusely in company with the box on the white chalky brow of Boxhill overlooking Juniper Hall. The foot of this slope around which creeps the placid little river Mole is now ent.i.tled _Bur_ford Bridge, but before the first bridge was here built, the site was seemingly known as Bur ford. The neighbouring Dorking, through which runs the Pipbrook, is equivalent to Tor King, Tarchon, or Troy King, and there is a likelihood that the Perseus who redeemed Andromeda, the _Ancient Troy Maid_, was a member of the same family. In the Iberian coin herewith inscribed Ho, which is ascribed to Ilipa or Ilipala, one may perhaps trace Hu, _i.e._, _Hugh_ the _mind_ or _brain_ in transit to these islands.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 223.--Iberian. From Akerman.]

To the yews on Boxhill one may legitimately apply the lines which Sir William Watson penned at the neighbouring Newlands or the lands of the self-renewing Ancient Yew:--

Old Emperor Yew, fantastic sire, Girt with thy guard of dotard Kings, What ages hast thou seen retire Into the dusk of alien things?

From Newlands Corner where the yews--the self-seeded descendants of immemorial ancestors--are thickly dotted, is a prospect unsurpa.s.sed in England.

The beech trees which are also a feature in the neighbourhood of Boxhill irresistibly turn one's mind to the immortal beeches at _Burn_ham in Bucks. Bucks supposedly derives its name from the patronymic Bucca or Bucco, and this district was thus presumably a seat of the Bucca, Pukka, or Puck King, _alias_ Auberon, to whom at Burnham the _beech_ or _boc_ would appear to have been peculiarly dedicated. There is a Burnham near Brightlingsea; a Burnby near Pocklington, a Burnham on the river Brue, a Burn in Brayton parish, Yorks; a river Burn or Brun in Lancas.h.i.+re, a river Burry in Glamorgans.h.i.+re, and in Norfolk a Burnham-Ulph. In Brancaster Bay are what are termed "Burnham Grounds"; hereabouts are Burnham Westgate, Burnham Deepdale, Burnham Overy, etc., and the local fishermen maintain "there are three other Burnhams under Brancaster Bay".[399] Doubtless the sea has claimed large tracts of Oberon's empire, but from Brean Down, Brown w.i.l.l.y, and Perran Round in the West to the famous Birrenswerk in Annandale, and the equally famous Bran Ditch in Cambridges.h.i.+re, the name of the Tall Man is ubiquitous. Among the innumerable Brandons or Branhills, Brandon Hill in Suffolk, where the flint knappers have continued their chipping uninterruptedly since old Neolithic times, may claim an honourable pre-eminence.

FOOTNOTES:

[323] _Cf._ Thomas, J. J., _Brit. Antiquissima_, p. 29.

[324] Hone, W., _Everyday Book_, i., 502.

[325] Squire, C., _Mythology of Ancient Britain and Ireland_, p.

52.

[326] Hazlitt, W. Carew, _Faiths and Folklore_, ii., 338.

[327] _Cf._ Johnson, W., _Folk Memory_, p. 143.

[328] Among the many Prestons I have enquired into is one with which I am conversant near Faversham. Here the Manor House is known as Perry Court; similarly there is a Perry Court at a second Preston situated a few miles distant. In the neighbourhood are Perry woods. There is a modern "Purston" at Pontefract, which figured in Domesday under the form "Prestun".

[329] Taylor, Rev. T., _Celtic Christianity of Cornwall_, p. 33.

[330] Courtney, Miss M. L., _Cornish Feasts and Folklore_, p. 123.