Archaic England : $b an essay in deciphering prehistory from megalithic monuments, earthworks, customs, coins, place-names, and faerie superstitionsBayley, Harold
History
Archaic England : $b an essay in deciphering prehistory from megalithic monuments, earthworks, customs, coins, place-names, and faerie superstitions
Bayley, Harold
Archaeology; England -- Antiquities
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 entitled _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.
[Illustration: 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 unsurpassed 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 Lancashire, a
river Burry in Glamorganshire, 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 Willy, and Perran Round in the West
to the famous Birrenswerk in Annandale, and the equally famous Bran
Ditch in Cambridgeshire, 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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