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
Some of the Britannias on page 120 have the aspect of young men rather
than maidens, and there is no doubt that Brut was regarded as
androginous or indeterminately as youth or maiden. We shall trace him or
her at Broadstairs, a corruption of Bridestow, at Bradwell, at Bradport,
at Bridlington, and in very many more directions. From Pryd come
probably the words _pride_, _prude_, and _proud_, and in the opinion of
our neighbours these qualities are among our national defects. Claiming
a proud descent we are admittedly a _dour_ people, and our neighbours
deem us _triste_, yet, nevertheless trustworthy, and inclined to truce.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--From _An Essay on Medals_ (Pinkerton, J.).]
On the shield of one of the first Britannias is a bull's head, whence
it may be assumed the bull was anciently as nowadays associated with
John Bull. At British festivals our predecessors used to antic in the
guise of a bull, and the bull-headed actor was entitled "The Broad". The
bull was intimately connected with Crete; Britomart was the Lady of All
Creatures, and seemingly the _brutes_ in general were named either after
her or Brut. The British word for bull was _tarw_, the Spanish is
_toro_; in Etruria we find the City of Turin or Torino using as its
cognisance a rampant bull; and I have little doubt that the fabulous
Minotaur was a physical brute actually maintained in the terrible
recesses of some yet-to-be-discovered labyrinth. The subterranean
mausoleums of the Sacred Bulls of Egypt are among the greatest of the
great monuments of that country; the bull-fights of Spain were almost
without doubt the direct descendants of sacred festivals, wherein the
slaying of the Mithraic Bull was dramatically presented, but in Crete
itself the bull-fights seem to have been amicable gymnastic games
wherein the most marvellous feats of agility were displayed.
Illustrations of these graceful and intrepid performances are still
extant on Cretan frieze and vase, the colours being as fresh to-day as
when laid on 3000 years ago.
In Britain the national sport seems to have been bull-baiting, and the
dogs associated with that pastime presumably were bull-dogs. Doggedness
is one of the ingrained qualities of our race; of recent years the
bull-dog has been promoted into symbolic evidence of our tenacity and
doggedness. Our mariners are sea-_dogs_, and the modern bards vouch us
to be in general boys of the bull-dog breed. The mascot bull-dogs in the
shops at this moment serve the same end as the mascot emblems and
mysterious hieroglyphics of the ancients, and the Egyptian who carried
a scarabæus or an Eye of Horus, acted without doubt from the same
simple, homely impulse as drives the modern Englishman to hang up the
picture of a repulsive animal subscribed, "What we have we'll hold".
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account