Nor over-wise churchwarden spoyled the sport.
Overwise scholars have assumed that the Maypole was primarily and merely a phallic emblem; it was, however, more generally the simple symbol of justice and “the rod of peace”: rod, rood, and ruth are of course variants of one and the same root.
Among, if not the prime of the May Day dances was one known popularly as Sellingers Round: here probably the r is an interpolation, and the immortal Sellinga was in all likelihood sel inga or the innocent and happy Ange of Islington:—
To Islington and Hogsdon runnes the streame,
Of giddie people to eate cakes and creame.
At the famous “Angel” of Islington manorial courts were held seemingly from a time immemorial: on a shop-front now facing it the curious surname Uglow may be seen to-day, and in view of the adjacent Agastone Road it is reasonable to assume that at Hogsdon, now spelt Hoxton, stood once an Hexe or Hag stone, perhaps also that the hill by the Angel was originally known as the ug low or Ug hill. We have noted that fairy rings were occasionally termed hag tracks, and that the Angel district was once associated with these evidences of the fairies is seemingly implied by a correspondent who wrote to The Gentleman’s Magazine in 1792 as follows: “Having noticed a query relating to fairy rings having once been numerous in the meadow between Islington and Canonbury, and whether there were any at this time, and having never seen those extraordinary productions whether of Nature or of animals, curiosity led me on a late fine day to visit the above spot in search of them, but I was disappointed. There are none there now; the meadow above mentioned is intersected by paths on every side and trodden by man and beast.” Man and beast have since converted these intersections into mean streets among which, however, still stand Fairbank and Bookham Streets.
Fig. 425.—From Christian Iconography (Didron).
The Maypole was generally a sprout and was no doubt in this respect a proper representative of the “blossoming tree” referred to in a Gaelic Hymn in honour of St. Brighid—
Be extinguished in us