Fig. 362.—Probable Restoration of Dagger with Mammoth Handle.
From A Guide to the Antiquities of the Stone Age (B.M.).
We have seen that in Scandinavia Mara—doubtless Black Mary—was a ghastly spectre associated with the Night Mare: to this Black Mary may perhaps be assigned mar, meaning to injure or destroy, and probably also morose, morbid, and murder. We again get the equation mar = Mary in marrjan the old German for mar, for marrjan is equivalent to the name Marian which is merely another form of Mary. The Maid Marian who figured in our May-day festivities in association with the sovereign archer Robin Hood, was obviously not the marrer nor the morose Mary but the Merry Lady of the Morris Dance, alias the gentle Maiden Vere or daughter deare of Flora. To White Mary or Mary the Weaver of the scarlet and true purple, may be assigned mere, meaning true and also merry, mirth, and marry: to Black Mary may be assigned myrrh or mar, meaning bitterness, and it is characteristic of the morose tendency of clericalism that it is to this root that the authorities attribute the Mary of Merry England.
The association of the May-fair or Fairy Mother with fifteen, and merriment is pointed by the custom that the great fair which used to be held in the Mayfair district of London began on May 1 and lasted for fifteen days: this fair, we are told, was “not for trade and merchandise, but for musick, showes, drinking, gaming, raffling, lotteries, stage plays, and drolls”.[702] That the Mayfair district was once dedicated to Holy Vera is possible from Oliver’s Mount, the site of which, now known as Mount Street, is believed to mark a fort erected by Oliver Cromwell. We have noted an Oliver’s Castle at Avebury or Avereberie, hence it becomes interesting to find an Avery Row in northern Mayfair, and an Avery Farm Row in Little Ebury Street. The term Ebury is supposed to mark the site of a Saxon ea burgh or island fort, an assumption which may be correct: at the time of Domesday there existed here a manor of Ebury, and that this neighbourhood was an abri or sanctuary dedicated to Bur or Bru is hinted in the neighbouring place-names Bruton Street (adjoining Avery Row, which is equivalent to Abery Row), Bourdon Street, Burton Street, and Burwood Place. Among the charities of Mayfair is one derived from a benefactor named Abourne: we have noticed that the tradition of the neighbourhood is that Kensington Gardens were the haunt of Oberon’s fair daughter, and I have already ventured the suggestion that Bryanstone Square—by which is Brawn Street—marks the site of a Brawn, Bryan, Obreon, or Oberon Street. Northwards lies Brondesbury or Bromesbury: at Bromley in Kent the parish church was dedicated to St. Blaze, and the local fair used to be held on St. Blaze’s Day,[703] and that the Broom or planta genista was sacred to the primal Blaze is further pointed by the ancient custom of firing broom-bushes on 1st May—the Mayfair’s day.[704] In Cornwall furze used to be hung at the door on Mayday morning: at Bramham or Brimham Rocks in Yorkshire the custom of making a blaze on the eve of the Summer Solstice prevailed until the year 1786.[705] By Bromesbury or Brondesbury is Primrose Hill, which was also known as Barrow Hill: there are, however, no traces of a barrow on this still virgin soil which was probably merely a brownlow, brinsley, or brinsmead, unmarked except by fairy bush or stone.[706] The French for primrose is primevere, and that the Mayfair was the Prime and Princess of all meads is implied by Herrick’s lines:—
Come with the Spring-time forth, fair Maid, and be
This year again the Meadow’s Deity.
Yet ere ye enter, give us leave to set
Upon your head this flowry coronet;
To make this neat distinction from the rest,
You are the Prime, and Princesse of the feast: