[127] Londres, the Gaulish form of London, implies that the radical was Lon—and perhaps further, that London was a holy enclosure dun or derry where luna, the moon, was worshipped. There is a persistent tradition that St. Paul’s, standing on the summit of Ludgate Hill or dun, occupies the site of a more ancient shrine dedicated to Diana, i.e., Luna.
[128] This name will subsequently be traced to Cres, the son of Jupiter, to whom the Cretans assigned their origin.
[129] Wright, T., Essays on Archæological Subjects, vol. i., p. 273.
[130] Wright, T., Essays on Archæological Subjects, vol. i., p. 283.
[131] In Albany the memory of “the gudeman” lingered until late, and according to Scott: “In many parishes of Scotland there was suffered to exist a certain portion of land, called the gudeman’s croft, which was never ploughed or cultivated, but suffered to remain waste, like the Temenos of a pagan temple. Though it was not expressly avowed, no one doubted that ‘the goodman’s croft’ was set apart for some evil being; in fact, that it was the portion of the arch-fiend himself, whom our ancestors distinguished by a name which, while it was generally understood, could not, it was supposed, be offensive to the stern inhabitant of the regions of despair. This was so general a custom that the Church published an ordinance against it as an impious and blasphemous usage.
“This singular custom sunk before the efforts of the clergy in the seventeenth century; but there must still be many alive who, in childhood, have been taught to look with wonder on knolls and patches of ground left uncultivated, because, whenever a ploughshare entered the soil, the elementary spirits were supposed to testify their displeasure by storm and thunder,”
Demonology and Witchcraft.
[132] These Sources of Life or vessels of Almighty Power were described as Crown, Wisdom, Prudence, Magnificence, Severity, Beauty, Victory, Glory, Foundation, Empire. Cf. King, C. W., The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 34.
[133] Johnston, Rev. J. B., Place-names of England and Wales.
[134] “The origin of the name is quite unknown to history.... Possibly because so many dogs were drowned in the Thames here.”—Johnston, Rev. J. B., Place-names of England, p. 321.