Archaic England

[685] _Ibid._, p. 79.

[686] _Ibid._, p. 78.

[687] P. 112.

[688] Writing _not_ in connection with either Monglow or Camperdizil Miss Gordon observes: "We may conjure up the scene where the watery stretches reflected in molten gold the 'pillars of fire' symbolising the presence of G.o.d; we seem to behold the reverend forms of the white clad Druids revolving in the mystic 'Deasil' dance from East to West around the glowing pile, and so following the course of the Sun, the image of the Deity".--_Prehistoric London_, p. 72.

[689] Eckenstein, L., _Comp. St. Nursery Rhymes_, p. 97.

[690] P. 98.

[691] Skeat believed _pun_ meant something _punched_ out of shape.

Is it not more probably connected with the Hebrew _pun_ meaning _dubious_?

CHAPTER XI

THE FAIR MAID

"We could not blot out from English poetry its visions of the fairyland without a sense of irreparable loss. No other literature save that of Greece alone can vie with ours in its pictures of the land of fantasy and glamour, or has brought back from that mysterious realm of unfading beauty treasures of more exquisite and enduring charm."--ALFRED NUTT.

"We have already shown how long and how faithfully the Gaelic and Welsh peasants clung to their old G.o.ds in spite of all the efforts of the clerics to explain them as ancient kings, or transform them into wonder-working saints, or to ban them as demons of h.e.l.l."--CHARLES SQUIRE.

In the preceding chapter it was shown that the number eleven was for some reason peculiarly identified with the Elven, or Elves: in Germany eleven seems to have carried a somewhat similar significance, for on the eleventh day of the eleventh month was always inaugurated the Carnival season which was celebrated by weekly festivities which increased in mirthful intensity until Shrove Tuesday.[692] Commenting upon this custom it has been pointed out that "The fates seem to have displayed a remarkable sense of artistry in decreeing that the Great War should cease at the moment when it did, for the hostilities came to an end at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month".[693]

Etymologists connect the word Fate with fay; the expression _fate_ is radically _good fay_, and it is merely a matter of choice whether Fate or the Fates be regarded as Three or as One: moreover the aspect of Fate, whether grim or beautiful, differs invariably to the same extent as that of the two fairy mothers which Kingsley introduces into _The Water Babies_, the delicious Lady Doasyouwouldbedoneby and the forbidding Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 353.--Printer's Ornament (English, 1724).]

The Greek _Moirae_ or Fates were represented as either three austere maidens or as three aged hags: the Celtic _mairae_, of which Rice Holmes observes that "no deities were nearer to the hearts of Celtic peasants,"

were represented in groups of three; their aspect was that of gentle, serious, motherly women holding new-born infants in their hands, or bearing fruits and flowers in their laps; and many offerings were made to them by country folk in grat.i.tude for their care of farm, and flock, and home.[694]

In the Etrurian bucket ill.u.s.trated on page 474, the Magna Mater or Fate was represented with two children, one white the other black: in the emblems herewith the supporting Pair are depicted as two Amoretti, and the Central Fire, Force, or Tryamour is portrayed by three hearts blazing with the fire of Charity. There is indeed no doubt that the Three Charities, Three Graces, and Three Fates were merely presentations of the one unchanging central and everlasting Fire, Phare, or Force.

Among the Latins the Moirae were termed Parcae, and seemingly all mythologies represent the Great Pyre, Phare, or Fairy as at times a Fury. In Britain Keridwen--whose name the authorities state meant _perpetual love_--appears very notably as a Fury, and on certain British coins she is similarly depicted. What were the circ.u.mstances which caused the moneyers of the period to concentrate such anguish into the physiognomy of the pherepolis it would be interesting to know: the fact remains that they did so, yet we find what obviously is the same fiery-locked figure with an expression unmistakably serene.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 354.--Printer's Ornament (English, 1724).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 355 to 358.--British.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 359.--Mary, in an Oval Aureole, Intersected by Another, also Oval, but of smaller size. Miniature of the X. Cent. From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

Tradition seems to have preserved the memory of the Virgin Mary as one of the Three Greek Moirae or Three Celtic Mairae or Spinners, for according to an apocryphal gospel Mary was one of the spinsters of the Temple Veil: "And the High priest said; choose for me by lot who shall spin the gold and the white and fine linen, and the blue and the scarlet, and the true purple. And the true purple and the scarlet fell to the lot of Mary, and she took them and went away to her house."[695]

The purple heart-shaped mulberry in Greek is _moria_, and the Athenian district known as Moria is supposed to have been so named from its similitude to a mulberry leaf. In Cornwall the scarlet-berried holly is known as Aunt Mary's Tree, and as _aunt_ in the West of England was a t.i.tle applied in general to _old_ women, it is evident that Aunt Mary of the Holly Tree must have been differentiated from the little Maid of Bethlehem. According to _The Golden Legend_ St. Mary died at the age of seventy-two, a number of which the significance has been partially noted, and she was reputed to have been fifteen years of age when she gave birth to the Saviour of the World: the number fifteen is again connected with St. Mary in the miracle thus recorded of her early childhood: "And when the circle of three years was rolled round, and the time of her weaning was fulfilled, they brought the Virgin to the Temple of the Lord with offerings. Now there were round the temple according to the fifteen Psalms of Degrees, fifteen steps going up."[696] Up these mystic fifteen steps we are told that the new-weaned child miraculously walked unaided.

The New Testament refers to three Marys; in the design overleaf the figure might well represent Fate, and that there was once a Great and a Little Mary is somewhat implied by the fact that in Jerusalem adjoining the church of St. Mary was "another church of St. Mary called the Little":[697] that there was also at one time a White Mary and a Black Mary is indubitable from the numerous Black Virgins which still exist in continental churches. Even the glorious Diana of Ephesus was, as has been seen, at times represented as black: the name Ephesus, where the Magna Mater was pre-eminently wors.h.i.+pped, is radically Ephe, and that G.o.diva of Coventry was alternatively a.s.sociated with night is clear from the fact that the G.o.diva procession at a village near Coventry included two G.o.divas, one white, the other black.[698]

Near King's Cross, London, in the ward of Farendone, used to exist a spring known as Black Mary's Hole: this name was popularly supposed to have originated from a negro woman who kept a black cow and used to draw water from the spring, but tradition also said that it was originally the Blessed Mary's Well, and that this having fallen into disrepute at the time of the Reformation the less attractive cognomen was adopted.[699]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 360.--Engraving on Pebble, Montastruc, Bruniquel.

FIG. 361.--Dagger-handle in form of mammoth, Bruniquel.

From _A Guide to the Antiquities of the Stone Age_ (B.M.).]

The immense antiquity of human occupation of this site is indicated by the fact that opposite Black Mary's Hole there was found at the end of the seventeenth century a pear-shaped flint instrument in the company of bones of some species of elephant: after lying unappreciated for many years the tool in question has since been recognised as a piece of human handiwork, and may fairly claim to be the first of its

Quiller Couch: "This is a matter not unconnected with our present subject, as the hand which fas.h.i.+oned so skilfully the barbed arrow-head of flint, and the polished hammer-axes may be fairly a.s.sociated with a brain of high capabilities".[701]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 362.--Probable Restoration of Dagger with Mammoth Handle. From _A Guide to the Antiquities of the Stone Age_ (B.M.).]

We have seen that in Scandinavia Mara--doubtless Black Mary--was a ghastly spectre a.s.sociated with the Night _Mare_: to this Black Mary may perhaps be a.s.signed _mar_, meaning to injure or destroy, and probably also _morose_, _morbid_, and _murder_. We again get the equation _mar_ = Mary in _marrjan_ the old German for _mar_, for _marrjan_ is equivalent to the name Marian which is merely another form of Mary. The Maid Marian who figured in our May-day festivities in a.s.sociation with the sovereign archer Robin Hood, was obviously not the marrer nor the morose Mary but the Merry Lady of the Morris Dance, _alias_ the gentle Maiden Vere or daughter deare of Flora. To White Mary or Mary the Weaver of the scarlet and true purple, may be a.s.signed _mere_, meaning true and also _merry_, _mirth_, and _marry_: to Black Mary may be a.s.signed _myrrh_ or _mar_, meaning bitterness, and it is characteristic of the morose tendency of clericalism that it is to this root that the authorities attribute the Mary of Merry England.

The a.s.sociation of the May-fair or Fairy Mother with fifteen, and merriment is pointed by the custom that the great fair which used to be held in the Mayfair district of London began on May 1 and lasted for fifteen days: this fair, we are told, was "not for trade and merchandise, but for musick, showes, drinking, gaming, raffling, lotteries, stage plays, and drolls".[702] That the Mayfair district was once dedicated to Holy Vera is possible from Oliver's Mount, the site of which, now known as Mount Street, is believed to mark a fort erected by Oliver Cromwell. We have noted an Oliver's Castle at Avebury or Avereberie, hence it becomes interesting to find an Avery Row in northern Mayfair, and an Avery Farm Row in Little Ebury Street. The term Ebury is supposed to mark the site of a Saxon _ea burgh_ or _island fort_, an a.s.sumption which may be correct: at the time of Domesday there existed here a manor of Ebury, and that this neighbourhood was an _abri_ or sanctuary dedicated to Bur or Bru is hinted in the neighbouring place-names _Bruton_ Street (adjoining Avery Row, which is equivalent to Abery Row), _Bour_don Street, _Bur_ton Street, and _Bur_wood Place.

Among the charities of Mayfair is one derived from a benefactor named Abourne: we have noticed that the tradition of the neighbourhood is that Kensington Gardens were the haunt of Oberon's fair daughter, and I have already ventured the suggestion that Bryanstone Square--by which is Brawn Street--marks the site of a Brawn, Bryan, Obreon, or Oberon Street. Northwards lies Brondesbury or Bromesbury: at Bromley in Kent the parish church was dedicated to St. Blaze, and the local fair used to be held on St. Blaze's Day,[703] and that the Broom or _planta genista_ was sacred to the primal Blaze is further pointed by the ancient custom of firing broom-bushes on 1st May--the Mayfair's day.[704] In Cornwall furze used to be hung at the door on Mayday morning: at Bramham or Brimham Rocks in Yorks.h.i.+re the custom of making a blaze on the eve of the Summer Solstice prevailed until the year 1786.[705] By Bromesbury or Brondesbury is Primrose Hill, which was also known as Barrow Hill: there are, however, no traces of a barrow on this still virgin soil which was probably merely a brownlow, brinsley, or brinsmead, unmarked except by fairy bush or stone.[706] The French for primrose is primevere, and that the Mayfair was the Prime and Princess of _all_ meads is implied by Herrick's lines:--

Come with the Spring-time forth, fair Maid, and be This year again the Meadow's Deity.

Yet ere ye enter, give us leave to set Upon your head this flowry coronet; To make this neat distinction from the rest, You are _the Prime_, and Princesse of the feast: To which with _silver_ feet lead you the way, While sweet-breath'd nymphs attend you on this day.

This is your houre; and best you may command, Since you are Lady of this fairie land.

Full mirth wait on you, and such mirth as shall Cherrish the cheek, but make none blush at all.

With the "silver feet" of the Meadow Maid may be connoted the curious custom of the London Merrymaids thus described by a French visitor to England in the time of Charles II.: "On the first of May, and the five or six days following, all the pretty young country girls, that serve the town with milk, dress themselves up very neatly and borrow abundance of silver plate whereof they make a pyramid which they adorn with ribbons and flowers, and carry upon their heads instead of their common milk-pails."[707] That this pyramid or pyre of silver represented a crown or halo is further implied by an engraving of the eighteenth century depicting a fiddler and two milk-maids dancing, one of the maids having on her head a silver plate. It is probable that this symbolised the moon, and that the second dancer represented the sun, the twain standing for the Heavenly Pair, or the Powers of Day and Night.

In Ireland there is little doubt that St. Mary was bracketed inextricably with St. Bride, whence the bardic a.s.sertion:--

There are _two_ holy virgins in heaven By whom may I be guarded Mary and St. Brighed.[708]

In a Latin Hymn Brighid--"the Mary of the Gael"--is startlingly acclaimed as the Magna Mater or Very Queen of Heaven:--

Brighid who is esteemed the Queen of the true G.o.d Averred herself to be _Christ's Mother_, and made herself such by words and deeds.[709]

At Kildare where the circular pyreum a.s.suredly symbolised the central Fire, the servants of Bride were known indeterminately as either Maolbrighde or Maolmuire, _i.e._, servants of Brighde, or servants of Muire, and it is probable that _Muire_, the Gaelic form of Mary, was radically _mother ire_, the word _ire_ being no doubt the same as _ur_, an Aryan radical meaning _fire_, whence _ar_son, _ar_dent, etc. The circular pyreum of Bride or Brighit the Bright, may be compared with the "round church of St. Mary" in Gethsemane: here the Virgin was said to have been born, and on the round church in question containing her sepulchre it was fabled that "the rain never falls although there is no roof above it".[710] This circular church of St. Mary was thus like the circular hedge of St. Bride open to the skies, and it is highly probable that the word Mary, Mory, Maree, etc., sometimes meant _mor_, _mawr_, or _Big_ Eye. The golden centre or Bull's Eye will be subsequently considered, meanwhile it is relevant to _Mor eye_ to point out that less than 200 years ago it was customary to sacrifice a bull on 25th August--a most ardent period of the year--to the G.o.d Mowrie and his "devilians" on the Scotch island of Inis Maree, evidently Mowrie's island.[711] At other times and in other districts, Mowrie, Muire, or Mary was no doubt equated with the Celtic Saints Amary and Omer: the surviving words _amor_, _amour_, pointing logically to the conclusion that _love_ was Mary's predominant characteristic. There is no radical distinction between _amour_ and _humour_, both words probably enshrining the adjectival _eu_, meaning soft, gentle, pleasing, and propitious: humour is merriment. A notable connection with Mary and _amour_ is found in Germany where Mother Mary is alternately Mother Ross or Rose: not only is the rose the symbol of _amour_, but the word _rose_ is evidently a corrosion of _Eros_, the Greek t.i.tle of Cupid or Amor. Miss Eckenstein states: "I have come across Mother Ross in our own [English]

chapbook literature,"[712] whence it becomes significant to find that Myrrha, the Virgin Mother of the Phrygian Adonis, was the consort of a divine Smith, or Hammer-G.o.d named Kinyras. The word Kinyras may thus reasonably be modernised into King Eros, and it is not unlikely that inquiries at Ross, Kinross, and Delginross would elicit a connection between these places and the G.o.d of Love.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 363.--From _Cities of Etruria_ (Dennis, C.).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 364.--From _Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism_ (Inman, C. W.).]

The authorities are slovenly content to equate Mary with Maria, Muire, Marion, etc., a.s.signing all these variations without distinction to _mara_, or bitterness: with regard to Maria, however, it may be suspected that this form is more probably to be referred to Mother Rhea, and more radically to _ma rhi_, _i.e._, Mother Queen, Lady, or Princess. That the word was used as generic term for Good Mother or Pure Mother is implied by its almost universal employment: thus not only was Adonis said to be the son of Myrrha, but Hermes was likewise said to be the child of Maia or Myrrha. The Mother of the Siamese Saviour was ent.i.tled Maya Maria, _i.e._, the Great Mary; the Mother of Buddha was Maya; Maia was a Roman Flower G.o.ddess, and it is generally accepted that _May_, the month of the Flower G.o.ddess, is an Anglicised form of Maia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 365.--Maya, the Hindoo G.o.ddess, with a Cruciform Nimbus. Hindostan Iconography. From _Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism_ (Inman, C. W.).]

The _earliest known_ allusion to the morris dance occurs in the church records of Kingston-on-Thames, where the morris dancers used to dance in the parish church.[713] There are in Britain not less than forty or fifty Kingstons, three Kingsburys, four Kentons, seven Kingstons, one Kenstone, and four Kingstones: all these may have been the towns or seats of tribal Kings, but under what names were they known before Kings settled there? It is highly improbable that royal residences were planted in previously uninhabited spots, and it is more likely that our Kings were crowned and a.s.sociated with already sacred sites where stood a royal and super-sacred stone a.n.a.logous to the Scotch _Johnstone_. This was certainly the case at Kingston-on-Thames where there still stands in the market-place the holy stone on which our ancient Kings were crowned: near by is _Can_bury Park, and it would not surprise me if the original barrow or mound of _Can_ were still standing there. The surname Lovekyn, which appears very prominently in Kingston records, may be connoted with the adjective _kind_, and it is probable that Moreford, the ancient name of Kingston-on-Thames, did not--as is supposed--mean _big ford_, but Amor or Mary ford. In Spain and Portugal (Iberia) the name Maria is bestowed indiscriminately upon men and women: that the same indistinction existed in connection with St. Marine may be inferred from the statement in _The Golden Legend_: "St. Marine was a n.o.ble virgin, and was _one only_ daughter to her father who changed the habit of his daughter so that she seemed and was taken for his son and not a woman".[714]

If the Mary of the Marigolds or "winking marybuds," which "gin to ope their golden eyes," was Mary or Big Eye, it may also be surmised that San Marino was the darling of the Mariners, and was the chief Mary-maid, Merro-maid or Mermaid: although the New Testament does not a.s.sociate the Virgin Mary with _mare_ the sea, amongst her t.i.tles are "Myrhh of the Sea," "Lady of the Sea," and "Star of the Sea". At St. Mary's in the Scillies, in the neighbourhood of Silver Street, is a castle known as Stella Maria: this castle is "built with salient angles resembling the rays of a star," and Pelistry Bay on the opposite side of the islet was thus presumably sacred to Belle Istry, the Beautiful Istar or Star. It has often been supposed that Start Point was named after Astarte, and there is every probability that the various rivers Stour, including the Kentish Great Stour and Little Stour, were also attributed to Istar or Esther. The Greek version of the Book of _Esther_--a varient of Istar--contains the remarkable pa.s.sage, "A little fountain became a river, and there was light, and the sun, and much water": in the neighbourhood of the Kentish Stour is Eastry; in Ess.e.x there is a Good Easter and a High Easter, and in Wilts and Somerset are Eastertowns. In England the sun was popularly supposed to dance at Eastertide, and _in Britain alone_ is the Easter festival known under this name: the ancient Germans wors.h.i.+pped a Virgin-mother named Ostara, whose image was common in their consecrated forests.

What is described as the "camp" surrounding St. Albans is called the Oyster Hills, and amid the much water of the Thames Valley is an Osterley or Oesterley. On the Oyster Hills at St. Albans was an hospice for infirm women, dedicated to St. Mary de Pree, the word _pree_ here being probably _pre_, the French for a meadow--but Verulam may have been _pre land_, for in ancient times it was known alternatively as Vrolan or _Bro_lan.[715] The Oesterley or Oester meadow in the Thames Valley, sometimes written Awsterley, was obviously common ground, for when Sir Thomas Gresham enclosed it his new park palings were rudely torn down and burnt by the populace, much to the offence of Queen Elizabeth who was staying in the place at the time. Notwithstanding the royal displeasure, complaints were laid against Gresham "by sundry poor men for having enclosed certain common ground to the prejudice of the poor".