Devon (England) -- Social life and customs; Wreyland (England)
This head of Isis being found upon Bell Hill, some rash antiquaries said
that Bell was really Bel or Baal. But it is a fact that there are traces
of outlandish gods in other parts of England. An inscription has been
found at York (_Corp. Inscr. Lat._ VII. 240) recording the dedication of
a temple to Serapis by the officer commanding the sixth Legion, which
then was stationed there; and two altars have been found at Corbridge
with Greek inscriptions (_Inscr. Græc._ XIV. 2553, 4) dedicating one of
them to Astartê and the other one to Hercules of Tyre. There is a
dedication to this Hercules in the Greek part of a bi-lingual
inscription at Malta (_Inscr. Græc._ XIV. 600) and in the Phœenician
part he is called Baal Melkarth of Tyre. This is the god at whom Elijah
jibed, “he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth and must be
awaked.” He was the guardian of navigation: in the depth of winter all
navigation ceased; and then he went to sleep and made no more journeys
till the festival of his Awakening in the early spring.
Coins of Roman Emperors are sometimes dug up in this neighbourhood. In
1837 a little hoard of them was brought to light on Furzeleigh farm,
three miles from here, while gravel and stone were being dug out to mend
a road; and these were coins of Valerianus, Gallienus, Postumus,
Victorinus, and Claudius Gothicus, whose short and stormy reigns began
and ended between 253 and 270 A.D. Hoards are buried even now.
Countryfolk lose money by bad investments or through the failure of a
bank; and then there is a scare, and many of them convert their savings
into coin, and hide or bury it. Burying is more secure: if money is
merely hidden in the house, the missus may get hold of it and squander
it away--at least, an old man told me so. He buried his (somewhere on
Dartmoor, I believe) and in 1917 he had a stroke and died without ever
telling anybody where it was. And some day somebody will come upon this
hoard of three or four hundred gold coins of Queen Victoria and King
Edward. The coins at Furzeleigh may have been buried there by such a man
some sixteen centuries before; and possibly they represent his savings,
or possibly his robberies and thefts.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account