We may reasonably assume that John Barton, who is mentioned by Stow as a great benefactor to the church of St. Michael, was either John Briton, or John of some particular Barton, possibly of the neighbouring Pardon Churchyard. The adjacent Bosse Alley is next Huggen Lane, wherein is the Church of All Hallows, and running past the church of St. Michael at Bassings hall is another Hugan Lane. Gyne, as in gynæcology, is Greek for woman, whence the gyne or queen of the Ikenian Ickenhoe or Boston Stump, may have meant simply woman, maiden, queen, or “a flaunting extravagant quean”. Somewhat east from the Sun tavern,[573] on the north side of this Michael’s church, is Mayden Lane, “now so called,” says Stow, “but of old time Ingene Lane, or Ing Lane”: “down lower,” he continues, “is Silver Street (I think of Silversmiths dwelling there)”. It has been seen that Silver Streets are ubiquitous in England, and as this Silver Street is in the immediate proximity of Adle Street and Ladle Lane, there is some presumption that Silver was here the Leda, or Lady, or Ideal, by whom it was said that Jupiter in the form of a swan became the Parent of the Heavenly twins or Fairbairns. We have considered the sign of the Swan with two necks as found near Goswell Road, and the neighbouring Goose Lane, Windgoose Lane, Pentecost Lane, and Chiswell Street are all in this connection interesting. I have already suggested that Angus, Aengus, or Oengus, the pre-Celtic divinity of New Grange, meant ancient goose: Oengus was alternatively known as Sen-gann or Old Gann, connected with whom were two young Ganns who were described sometimes as the sons of Old Gann, sometimes as his father. In the opinion of Prof. Macalister Oengus, alias Dagda mor, the Great Good Fire, alias Sengann, “was not originally son of the two youths, but father of the two youths, and he thus falls into line with other storm gods as the parent of Dioscuri.”[574]
There is little doubt that Aengus, the ancient goose, the Father of St. Bride, was Sengann the Old Gander, and in connection with St. Michael’s goose it is noteworthy that Sinann, the Goddess of the Shannon, was alternatively entitled Macha. Mr. Westropp informs[575] us that Sengann was the god of the Ganganoi who inhabited Connaught, hence no doubt he was the same as Great King Conn, and Sinann was the same as Good Queen Eda.
At the north end of London Bridge stands Old Swan Pier, upon the site of which was once Ebgate, an ancient water-gate. “In place of this gate,” says Stow, “is now a narrow passage to the Thames called Ebgate Lane, but more commonly the Old Swan.” Ebgate may be connoted with the neighbouring Abchurch Lane, where still stands what Stow termed “the parish church of St. Marie Abchurch, Apechurch, or Upchurch, as I have read it,” and this same root seemingly occurs in the Upwell of St. Olave Upwell distant only a few hundred yards. This spot accurately marks the hub of ancient London, and there is here still standing the once-famous London stone: “some have imagined,” says Stow, “the same to be set up by one John, or Thomas Londonstone, dwelling there against, but more likely it is that such men have taken name of the stone than the stone of them”.
There is little doubt that London stone, where oaths were sworn and proclamations posted, was the Perry stone of the men who made the six main roads or tribal tracks which centred there, of which great wheel Abchurch formed seemingly the hob or hub. Abchurch was in all probability originally a church of Hob, and it may aptly be described as one of the many primitive abbeys: there is an Ibstone at Wallingford, which the modern authorities—like the “John Londonstone” theorists of Stow’s time—urge, was probably Ipa’s stone: there is an Ipsley at Redditch, assumed to be either aspentree meadow or perhaps Aeppas mead. Ipstones at Cheadle, we are told, “may be from a man as above”; of Hipswell in Yorkshire Mr. Johnston concludes, “there is no name at all likely here, so this must be well at the hipple or little heap”. But as Hipswell figures in Leland as Ipreswell, is there any absolute must about the “hipple,” and is it not possible that Ipres or Hipswell may have been dedicated to the same hipha or hip, the Prime Parent of our Hip! Hip! Hip! who was alternatively the Ypre of Ypres Hall and Upwell by Abchurch? At Halifax there is a Hipperholme which appeared in Domesday as Huperun, and here the authorities are really and seriously nonplussed. “It seems hard to explain Huper or Hipper. There is nothing like it in Onom, unless it be Hygebeort or Hubert; but it may be a dissimilated form of hipple, hupple, and mean ‘at the little heaps’.”[576]
Let us quit these imaginary “little heaps” and consider the position at the Halifax Hipperholme, or Huperun. The church here occupied the site of an ancient hermitage said to have been dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the Father of hermits, and to have possessed as a sacred relic the alleged true face of St. John: my authority continues that this attracted great numbers of pilgrims who “approached by four ways, which afterwards formed the main town thoroughfares concentrating at the parish church; and it is supposed to have given rise to the name Halifax, either in the sense of Holy Face with reference to the face of St. John, or in the sense of Holy ways with reference to the four roads, the word fax being Old Norman French for highways”.[577] More recent authorities have compared the word with Carfax at Oxford, which is said to mean Holy fork, or Holy road, converging as in a fork. The roads at Carfax constitute a four-limbed cross; Oxenford used to be considered “the admeasured centre of the whole island”;[578] it was alternatively known as Rhydychain, whence I do not think that Rhydychain meant a ford for oxen, but more probably either Rood King, or Ruddy King.
Fig. 311.—From The Cross: Heathen and Christian (Brock, M.).
In 1190 Halifax was referred to as Haliflex, upon which the Rev. J. B. Johnston comments: “the l seems to be a scribe’s error, and flex must be feax. Holy flax would make no sense. In Domesday it seems to be called Feslei, can the fes be feax too?” In view of the cruciform streets of Chichester, of our cruciform rood or rota coins, and of the four rivers supposed by all authorities to flow to the four quarters out of Paradise, is it not possible that four-quartered Haliflex was a fay’s lea or meadow, whose founders built their “abbey”[579] in the true-face form of the Holy Flux or Fount, the ain or flow of living water? Four ains or eyes are clearly exhibited on the emblems here illustrated, which show the four-quartered sacramental buns or brioches, whence the modern Good Friday bun has descended.
