Lincolnshire.
Oliver in his Monumental Antiquities of Great Grimsby (1825, p. 39), speaking of Holm Hill and Abbey Hill, two of the seven hills on which the British town of Grym-by was situated, says they were united by an artificial bank, called the Ket Bank, in connection with which he relates the following curious ceremony:—
The great female divinity of the British Druids was Ket, or Ceridwen; a personification of the Ark of Noah; the famous Keto of Antiquity, or, in other words Ceres, the patroness of the ancient mysteries. To enter into a full explanation of these mysteries is unnecessary. Suffice it to say that the aspirant, at the conclusion of the ceremony of initiation, was placed in a small boat, to represent the confinement of Noah in the Ark;—which boat was a symbol of the helio-arkite deity,—and committed to the waves with directions to gain a proposed point of land, which was to him a shore, not only of safety, but of triumph. On this shore he was received by the hierophant and his attendants, who had placed themselves there for the express purpose, and pronounced a favourite of Ket, by whom he was now said to be purified with water, and consequently regenerated and purged from all his former defilements. The Abbey Hill was the place where these sacred mysteries were celebrated, and the designation of this bank fully corroborates the conjecture, for whoever will attentively consider the situation of these two hills, connected by an extended embankment even at the present day, will be convinced that a more convenient spot could not be found for the performance of the above ceremony. The sacred rites were solemnized within the stone circle, which doubtless existed on the Abbey Hill, and the candidate at the highest time of the tide was committed to the mercy of the waves from the point now known by the name of Wellow Mill, and he had to struggle against the declining tide, until he was cast at the foot of Holm Hill, upon the bank of Ket, the presiding deity, under whose special protection he was ever after placed.
This ceremony always took place on May Eve, for at no other season was the final degree of perfection conferred, and as soon as the fortunate aspirants had succeeded in gaining the safe landing-place of Ket, which led by an easy gradation to the summit of the hill, fires were lighted on the apex of this and all the neighbouring hills, and the most extravagant joy was visible throughout the district.