Ambrosia, the fabled food of the gods, appears to have been honey: it is said that the Amber stones were anointed with Ambrosia, hence it is significant to find in immediate proximity to each other the place-names Honeycrock and Amberstone in Sussex. The Russians have an extraordinary idea that Ambrosia emanated from horses’ heads,[653] and as there is a “Horse Eye Level” closely adjacent to the Sussex Honeycrock and Amberstone we may assume that the neighbouring Hailsham, supposed to mean “Home of Aela or Eile,” was originally an Ellie or Elphin Home. Layamon refers to Stonehenge, “a plain that was pleasant besides Ambresbury,” as Aelenge, which probably meant Ellie or Elphin meadow, for ing or inge was a synonym for meadow. The correct assumption may possibly be that all flowery meads were the recognised haunts of the anges or ingles: the fairy rings are usually found in meadows, and the poets feigned Proserpine in a meadow gathering flowers ere she was ravished below by Pluto: as late as 1788 an English poet expressed the current belief, “’Tis said the fairy people meet beneath the bracken shade on mead and hill”.
Across the Sussex mead known as Horse Eye Level runs a “Snapsons Drove”: Snap is a curious parental name and is here perhaps connected with Snave, a Kentish village, presumably associated with San Aphe or San Ap.[654] Not only was the hipha or hobby horse decorated with a knop or knob, but a radical feature of its performance seems to have been movable jaws with which by means of a string the actor snapped at all and sundry: were these snappers, I wonder, the origin of the Snapes and Snapsons? In view of the fact that the surname Leaper is authoritatively connoted with an entry in a fifteenth century account-book: “To one that leped at Chestre 6s. 8d.,” the suggestion may possibly be worth consideration.
In Sussex there are two Ambershams and an Amberley: in Hants is Amberwood. St. Ambrose is recorded to have been born in Rome, whence it is probable that he was the ancient divinity of Umbria: in Derbyshire there is a river Amber, and in Yorkshire a Humber, which the authorities regard as probably an aspirated form of cumber, “confluence”. The magnetic properties of amber, which certainly cause a humber or confluence, may have originated this meaning; in any case cumber and umber are radically the same word. Probably Humberstones and Amberstones will be found on further inquiry to be as plentiful as Prestons or Peri stones: there is a Humberstone in Lincolnshire, another at Leicester, near Bicester is Ambrosden, and at Epping Forest is Ambresbury. This Epping Ambresbury, known alternatively as Ambers’ Banks, is admittedly a British oppidum: the remains cover 12 acres of ground and are situated on the highest plateau in the forest. As there is an Ambergate near Buxton it is noteworthy that Ambers’ Banks in Epping are adjacent to Beak Hill, Buckhurst Hill, and High Beech Green. I have already connoted Puck or Bogie with the beech tree, and it is probable that Fairmead Plain by High Beech Green was the Fairy mead where once the pixies gathered: close by is Bury Wood, and there is no doubt the neighbourhood of Epping and Upton was always very British.
Fig. 339.—A Persian King, adorned with a Pyramidal Flamboyant Nimbus. Persian Manuscript, Bibliothèque Royale. From Christian Iconography (Didron).
In old English amber or omber meant a pitcher—query a honey-crock[655]—whence the authorities translate the various Amberleys as meadow of the pitcher, and Ambergate, near Buxton, as “probably pitcher road”. The Amber Hill near Boston, we are told, “will be from Old English amber from its shape,” but as it is extremely unusual to find hills in the form of a pitcher this etymology seems questionable. At the Wiltshire Ambresbury there is a Mount Ambrosius at the foot of which, according to local tradition, used to exist a college of Druidesses,[656] in which connection it is noteworthy that just as Silbury Hill is distant about a mile from the Avebury Circle, so Mount Ambrosius is equally distant from Choir Gawr.
To Amber may be assigned the words umpire and empire; Oberon, the lovely child, is haply described as the Emperor of Fairyland, whence also no doubt he was the lord and master of the Empyrean. When dealing elsewhere with the word amber I suggested that it meant radically Sun Father,[657] and there are episodes in the life of St. Ambrose which support this interpretation, e.g., “it happened that an enchanter called devils to him and sent them to St. Ambrose for to annoy and grieve him, but the devils returned and said that they might not approach to his gate because there was a great fire all about his house”. Among the Persians it was customary to halo their divinities, not with a circle but with a pyre or pyramid of fire, and in all probability to the auburn Auberon the Emperor of the Empyrean may be assigned not only burn and brand, but also bran in the sense of bran new. That St. Ambrose was Barnaby Bright or the White god of day is implied by the anecdote “a fire in the manner of a shield covered his head, and entered into his mouth: then became his face as white as any snow, and anon it came again to his first form”.[658] The basis of this story would seem to have been a picture representing Ambrose with fire not entering into, but emerging from, his mouth and forming a surrounding halo “in the manner of a shield”. Embers now mean ashes, and the Ember Days of Christianity probably trace backward to the immemorial times of prehistoric fire-worship. At Parton, near Salisbury, one meets with the curious surname Godber: and doubtless inquiry would establish a connection between this Godber of Parton and Godfrey.
Fig. 340.—The Divine Triplicity, Contained within the Unity. From a German Engraving of the XVI. Cent. From Christian Iconography (Didron).
The weekly fair at Ambresbury used to be held on Friday; the maid Freya, to whom Friday owes its name, was evidently Fire Eye; the Latin feriæ were the hey-days or holidays dedicated to some fairy. Fairs were held customarily on the festival of the local saint, frequently even to-day within ancient earthworks: the most famous Midsummer Fair used to be that held at Barnwell: Feronia, the ancient Italian divinity at whose festival a great fair was held, and the first-fruits of the field offered, is, as has been shown, equivalent to Beronia or Oberon.