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
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]
[Illustration: FIG. 263.--Banwell Cross. From _Earthwork of England_
(A. Hadrian Allcroft).]
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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