The name Durobrivæ was also applied by the Romans to the Icenian town of Caistor, where it is locally proverbial that,
Caister was a city when Norwich was none,
And Norwich was built of Caistor stone.
There is a second Caistor which the Romans termed Venta Icenorum: the neighbouring modern Ancaster, the Romans entitled Causeimei. It is always taken for granted that the numerous chesters, casters, cesters of this country are the survivors of some Roman castra or fort. Were this actually the case it is difficult to understand why the Romans called Chester Deva, Ancaster Causeimei, Caistor Durobrivæ, and Rochester Durobrivum: in any case the word castra has to be accounted for, and I think it will be found to be traceable to some prehistoric Judgment Tree, Cause Tree, Case Tree, or Juge Tree. No one knows exactly how “Zeus” was pronounced, but in any case it cannot have been rigid, and in all probability the vocalisation varied from juice to sus, and from juge to jack and cock.[479]
The rider of a race-horse is called a jockey, and the child in the nursery is taught to
Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
To see a white lady ride on a white horse.
An English CAC horse is illustrated on [page 453], and the White Lady of Banbury who careered to the music of her bells was very certainly the Fairy Queen whom Thomas the Rhymer describes as follows: “Her Steed was of the highest beauty and spirit, and at his mane hung thirty silver bells and nine, which made music to the wind as she paced along. Her saddle was of ivory, laid over with goldsmiths’ work: her stirrups, her dress, all corresponded with her extreme beauty and the magnificence of her array. The fair huntress had her bow in hand, and her arrows at her belt. She led three greyhounds in a leash, and three hounds of scent followed her closely.”
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]