On sinners with compassion, and each morn
Leadest the wayward to the rightful path.
Now linger not, but come! O goddess fair,
O Shepherdess of all, thou drawest nigh
With feet unwearied.
I have suggested that the circle of Long Meg and her daughters originally embodying the idea of a Marygold, Marguerite, or Aster, was erected to the honour of St. Margaret the Peggy, or Pearl of Price, and it is possible that the oyster or producer of the pearl may have derived its name from Easter or Ostara: that Astarte was St. Margaret is obvious from the effigies herewith, and the connection is further pointed by the already noted fact that in the neighbourhood of St. Margaret’s, Westminster, there prevailed traditions of a Giantess named Long Meg. This powerful Maiden was evidently Margaret or Invicta, on the War-path, her pugilistic exploits being far-famed: it is particularly related that Long Meg distinguished herself in the wars at Bulloigne, whence it will probably prove that “Bulloigne” was associated with the War Maid whom the Romans termed Bellona, and that both Bulloigne and Bologna were originally shrines of Bello gina, either the Beautiful Woman or the War Queen.
Fig. 409.—St. Margaret. From Westminster Abbey. From The Cross: Christian and Heathen (Brock, M.).
Fig. 410.—Astarte, the Syrian Venus. From a Coin in the British Museum. From The Cross: Christian and Heathen (Brock, M.).