oak pasture, but where trees of many kinds grew together the name of a chieftain or demigod might be given instead. Our 'Gladstone Road' and 'Palmerston Villa; are the natural sprouts of the 'Egils field' or 'Osgot-porp' (Osgarthorphe) of a former age.
The most interesting local names are those which have preserved and handed down fragments of old religious beliefs. The place called The Apronfull of Stones in Bradfield preserves the memory of the Teutonic legends in which the Blessed Virgin 'carries stone and earth in her apron like Athena or the fay,'[1] and in which giantesses carry warth and rocks in their aprons, and, the strings of the aprons breaking, drop them on the ground. Giants and giantesses, in the popular belief, brought the hills and the rocks to the places where they stand. Who can doubt that the stone or rock called Giant's Chair, near An Kirk or Han Kirk Hill, and near the Meggon-gin Hollow in Dore, was the chair in which, according to the ancient belief, a giant sat enthroned?[2] We may be quite sure that, as An Kirk is a heap of rocks 'confusedly hurled' lying on the summit of a hill within half a mile of the Giant's Chair, An is the Anglo-Saxon ent, a giant, or its genetive plural enta. An Kirk, Han Kirk, or Hound Kirk, then, may represent an Anglo-Saxon enta kirke or circe, a church reared by giants.[3] History has left no record of the existence of a 'church' at Han Kirk, nor can we conceive it possible that a Christian temple ever stood upon these rocks on this high moorland waste. The kirk, if that word has come down to us in an uncorrupted shape, is a Titanic temple—a temple built by the giants. Further to the south-west on these moorland heights, between Baslow and Curbar, is a road, partly paved, which is called the Giant's Causeway. Here, then, we have the clearest evidence the ancient belief in giants. The evidence of belief in dwarfs is not less distinct. In Bradfield—that home of legend and poetry which two hundred and fifty years ago was believed to be the birth-place of 'Robin Hood'—we have Dwariden, the vale of the dwarfs. Their voices, in the ears of men of old, echoed amongst the rocks and hills. These dwarfs were 'cunning smiths,' bordering upon the smith-heroes and the smith-gods.
The meaning of the curious local names which surround Han Kirk Hill will be more clearly seen after a visit to the place itself, and after perusal of the map on the opposite page. Ascending the hill from Banner Cross, and passing Castle Dyke on the left, we reach the inn at Ringinglowe. At this point, if we take the road which turns to the left, we shall see on our left-hand side a rugged and uncultivated valley, through which flows a stream called, on the ordnance survey map, Fenny Brook. Near to the brook are Barber Fields. The country side is rough moorland, growing little else but heather, with here and there a stunted shrub. On the right-hand side of the road may be seen a small dwelling, or rather stone hut—a thatched squatter's cot without upper rooms. On old road called Jumble Road, which leads to Dore, is visible on the left, but Sparkinson's Spring, marked on the map, is out of our view. A gamekeeper's house called Oxdale Lodge is next approached on the right-hand side of the road. The house fronts the south-east, and looks straight down a clough or deep valley, watered by a runlet, by whose banks grows here and there a mountain ash. Adjacent to the spot where Oxdale Lodge stands, Fairbank's map records a stone called Harrys Stone. I asked the gamekeeper of Oxdale Lodge whether he knew of such a stone. He replied that he did not, and had never heard of it. I have, nevertheless, no doubt of the accuracy of Fairbank's survey, and can only suppose that the name has been lost and the stone removed. Harry is the Anglo-Saxon hearh or hearg (pronounced harry), meaning a temple or idol, as may be seen in Adamfield Harrie, Holmesfield.[4] If we cast our eyes to the right of Oxdale Lodge, we shall see on the crest of the moors and standing against the sky two large stones called the Ox Stones. In shape they roughly resemble oxen, and they are not inaptly so called. Whence, then, the name Oxdale? This place appears to have been named after the Ox Stones rather than after living oxen, which , it is possible, never grazed upon these rugged and heath-covered moors. Öxnadalr, dale of oxen, is found in Icelandic local names. If we turn our eyes to the left we shall see Han Kirk Hill (Giants' Church Hill), with its summit and its sides strown with great stones, which look as if they had been cast down or scattered here and there by some Titanic power. One can understand the childlike awe with which these natural wonders would be regarded by ancient peoples, and how the fables of giants and giantesses scattering stones from their aprons would arise. The form which the old Norse and German legends generally take is that a giant or giantess was going to build a church or a bridge, and that as, with this object in view, huge stones were being carried through the air, the apron-strings of the giant or giantess broke, and the stones came tumbling down.
As we stand upon these wild moors, with fair landscapes extending on every side beneath our feet, we seem to be held in equipoise between an old and a new world. In the distant valleys to the north-east lies the big town where steel is made, with its Vesuvian chimneys and its squalid streets. On these moerland heights we stand in a peaceful solitude whose stillness is unbroken sace by the peck, peck, peck of the grouse, or the barking of the gamekeeper's dog. No plough has ever broken the heath, though perhaps, in a few rare spots, the Wealh, Barbar, or 'Celt' may have built his little hut and earned a scanty livelihood. No signs of cultivation are apparent now, and if ever the hand of man tried to make this wilderness grow corn the heather and rush have long since resumed their ancient domination. The only tree which grows upon these moors is the wiggin or mountain ash—the tree which was sacred to Thor, and which is still regarded by the people of Bradfield as a protection against sorcery.[5] A few of these trees are found by the sides of the moorland rills, which flow down through deep rugged channels to the Sheath. On the hillside to the south-east of Harrys Stone is a spring or well which bubbles from the rock all through the driest summers. On the ordnance map it is called God's Spring, but the name was unknown to the gamekeeper who conducted me to the spot.
As we continue our journey towards Fox House we come to a place which, on Fairbank's map, is called Fingerem Stone. No such word is now known to the people of the district whom I have questioned. The position of Fingerem Stone is nevertheless made clear by the map. It is on the left-hand side of the road as one travels from Ringinglow to Fox House and near to the last-named place. I was not permitted to approach the spot for fear of disturbing the young grouse, but as far as one could judge from the road it is a heap of stones scattered here and there. I cannot say more without a nearer examination. As Fingerem Stone is about three hundred yards from an old earth-circle to be presently mentioned, one may be pretty sure that Fingerem stands for Thingeram, the th having been changed to f, just as swarth has become swarf (wheel-swarf). Indeed the change from th to f is common. What, then, is Thingeram? Thingar may possibly be A.S. pingere, an advocate, or priest. The final syllable may be hám, home, house. It will be noticed that a place called Parson's House, on the other side of the road, is adjacent. Parson's House, however, is not connected with Thingeram, for it was built, I am told, or owned by the Rev. Thomas Bingham early in the present century, after the enclosure of the commoms.
Quite near Fingerem Stone upon the moor and to the north of Stone House is a circle which will be found marked on larger ordnance maps. Mr. Jackson and I examined it with some care, but we made no excavations. Although it is, for the most part, overgrown by the heather, it is veyy distinctly marked. The diameter, measured by the inner edge of the circle, we made out to be 83 feet, the extreme diameter being 95 feet. The average height of the circle is rather more than two feet, and there are traces both of an inner and an outer fossa or ditch. The circle appears to be composed of a mixture of earth and stones, some of the stones having been lately removed for the building of walls. The circle is, as usual, incomplete, the opening pointing towards Fingerem Stone It seems clear that the word Fingeram=Thingeram is in some way connected with or descriptive of this earth-circle, and it may represent an Anglo-Saxon pinga-hám, the house or place of meetings; parliaments and courts having ben formerly held in the open air on a plain.
Continuing our journey down to Dore we pass Piper Hosue on the left. This, I am told, was called after the Rev. H. H. Piper, of Norton, its former owner. Before we reach the Han Kirk Hill the road makes a sharp bend, and we cross a deep and weird valley, which lies at the foot of this hill, and is called Meggon-gin Hollow. Below, and on the other side of the road is the Giant's Chair. The oath 'by the Meggons,' which is well known to the old inhabitants of Sheffield, appears to explain this word, for I take it to mean ' By the Powers,' the Anglo-Saxon megyn meaning 'power.' Meggon, then mat refer to the same Titanic power which, according to the old fables, scattered the great stones on Han Kirk Hill, gin being an opening or narrow valley.[6] The Giant's Chair is not marked on the maps, but it is remembered by the old inhabitants, several of whom have mentioned it to me. The proximity of Giant's Chair to Han Kirk Hill (Giant's Church Hill) is not without significance.
Continuing our journey we come to Jumble Road, already mentioned, and we have thus gone round Han Kirk Hill. The fact that such a cluster of strange local names should be found within so small a circle is remarkable. Each tends to explain or throw light upon the other, and the result is that we have within a narrow compass a congeries of local names pointing to one distinct conclusion—the early settlement of these wilds by a people who believed in mythology identical with that of the old Germans and Norsemen, and resembling that of the Greeks and Romans. There are other names in this glossary which , with certainty or with varying degrees of probability, tell of the old religious faith, with its great army of lesser gods and heroes—beings which survived in the numerous saints of the middle ages. I may refer, by way of example, to Anthony the patron saint and defender of swine and cattle, to Stephen the patron of horses, to Lawrence, to Ignace, to Martin, to Ganna the prophetess. The mythology of the Anglo-Saxons and Norsemen cannot be separated from the legends which during the early and middle ages of the Christian church were adopted as integral parts of the faith of that great communion. A true historic continuity links them together, the one being the modified descendant of the other. The faith of the Greek or Roman peasant in the fabled stories of those sons of Earth and Tartarus who stormed the heavens was not deeper than the belief of the old Englishman in giants who hurled the rocks, and who scattered them, with mighty arms, over the Derbyshire moorlands.
As regards colour in local names, the New English Dict. has the following remarks about the word Black-acre: 'An arbitrary name for a particular parcel of ground, to distinguish it from another denominated "white acre" (=parcel a, parcel b, parcel c). The choice of the words "black," "white," and "green" was perhaps influenced by their use to indicate different kinds of crops.' Although the words 'black acre' and 'white acre' might be used in treatises on law to distinguish one estate or field from another, it seems clear that these names were not originally arbitrary. In this glossary, such words as Black Acre, Blacka Dyke, Black Car, Black Edge, Black Hill, Black Knowl, Black Piece Wood, 'Black Lands and Redd Hills,' Brown Storth Wood, Green Hill, Gold Green, Gold Hill, Red-ing (see Reading Lane), White Acre, Whitelow, White Lee, White Hill, White Yard, White Moss, are intended, however roughly, to describe the colour of the soil, or of the grass, moss, or trees or plants growing thereon. Black, of course may be the old English blake, blac, pale, implying the absence of the full green of vegetation, but more probably it expresses the dark colour of the burnt common or moor. Those who saw the miles of dreary and blackened moors about Hollow Meadows, after they were burnt in the hot summer of 1868—a blackened waste, which so remained for years—will understand what is meant by Black Hill, Black Lands, Black Edge, &c. To burn the heather or the gorse was the cheapest and readiest way of clearing land for cultivation. Again, the pale colours of some kinds of moss which grow on moors will explain White Low and White Moss. I cannot believe that the village of Green-Hill was so named arbitrarily, for the grassy slopes which lead up to the village from the north are sufficient explanation. There must have been, at this place, an expanse of bright green turf, free from gorse or underwood, and probably the site of an old British settlement, which would strike the eye of the Anglo-Saxon settler, and hence give rise to the name. Black need not in every case refer to burnt underwood, heather, or gorse. It may, and often does, express the appearance of the dark and peaty soil found in many places, and especially on moorland heights.
Many fine yew trees grew in the environs of Sheffield and in the adjacent villages. This tree, however, is intolerant of the smoke from coal fires. I remember ancient yews in Cold-Aston dying under the influence of an amount of smoke which was quite harmless to other trees. There was a long avenue of them at the Hallows; their withered forms seemed, like the Scotch minstrel, 'to have known a better day.' Ewe Field in Ecclesall, Ewe Forth, Ewe Flatts, and Ewe Wood in Holmesfield, Uden (yew valley) and Ughill (yew hill) in Bradfield point to the abundant growth of this tree. Gerard says that taxus is called in English the 'ewe or yew tree.' It was anciently regarded as a deadly and poisonous plant. It was said 'that if any doe sleepe vnder the shadow thereof it causeth sickness and oftentimes death.' 'All which,' says Gerard, 'I dare boldly affirme is altogether vntrue; for when I was yong and went to schoole, diuers of my schoole-fellows and likewise myselfe did eat our fils of the berries of this tree, and haue not only slept vnder the shadow therof, but among the branches also, without any hurt at all, and that not one time, but many times.' (Herball, p. 1371.) William Harrison, writing in 1577 of the 'wooddes and marrises' in England, says we are 'not wythout the plane, the Ughe the sorfe, the chestnutte, the line, the black cheerie, and such like. And although that we enioye them not in so great plentie now in most places, as in times past or the other afore remembered, yet haue we sufficient of them all for our necassarie turnes and vses, especially of Ughe as may be seene betwixt Rotherham and Sheffilde, and some steeded of Kent also as I haue beene informed.' (Holinshed, 1577, i. 91, recto.) The yews between Sheffield and Rotherham have perished; only local names and the testimony of honest William Harrison remain to show how abundant the tree once was in this district.
Footnotes
- ↑ Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, iii, p.xxxvii. See this local name more fully explained in the Addenda.
- ↑ According to Greek and Norse beliefs the gods have thrones or chairs. In the Odysset (x. 188), Odysseus and his comrades are attackes by the Laestrygons, who were 'not like men, but like the giants. They threw at us from the cliffs with great stones as big as a man could carry.'
- ↑ In the Hebrew Scriptures the church of Jehovah is described as built upon a hell. 'Her foundations are upon the holy hills' (Psalm lxxxvii. 1). 'Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord!' (Ps. xxiv. 3.)
- ↑ See Adamfield, p. 293.
- ↑ See p. xxii ante.
- ↑ It may possibly mean 'great opening,' as in main-land, main here being Icel. magin, strength, chief. But I think this is improbable.
