ed in these islands were dedicated to this deity, but the Celtæ who settled here in very early times acknowledged him, as did their successors the Romans, before the introduction of christianity; and therefore it is probable he might have been classed by our pagan ancestors amongst their idols. The Priapeid deity preserved at Hilton in Staffordshire, vulgarly called Jack of Hilton, of which Dr. Plot has given an account, accompanied with an engraving, seems to warrant this conjecture[1]; however, it is certain that the professors of the religion of Bramha in Asia, at this day exhibit the Φαλλος as the symbol of the vivifying spirit, on the boundaries of districts, on the highways, in their temples, choultries, oratories, and other places, by them held sacred. This symbol is also used by the ladies on their rings and bracelets, and is pendent to their necklaces, in the same manner as they wear crucifixes on the continent; and such is the force of education, opinion, and custom, that no improper ideas are annexed to the display thereof. Although such symbols are very properly rejected by christians, the philosopher may remark, that evil is only in the mind, and attaches to the ideas affixed to particular words or symbols: he may say with Horace
Et quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non.
- ↑ "Jack of Hilton is a little hollow image of brass about twelve inches high, kneeling upon his left knee, and holding his right hand on his head, and his left hand upon pego or his veretrum erected, having a little hole in the place of the mouth about the bigness of a great pin's head, and another in the back, about two thirds of an inch diameter, at which last hole it is filled with water, it holding about four pints and a quarter, which when set to a strong fire evaporates in the same manner as in an Æolipile, and vents itself at the smaller hole at the mouth in a constant blast, blowing the fire so strongly that it is very audible, and makes a sensible impression on that part of the fire where the blast lights, as I found by experience, May 26, 1680." See the account given of the whimsical services done by the lord of Ellington to the lord of Hilton, as given by Dr. Plot in his History of Staffordshire, p. 433, where the functions of this Jack of Hilton are related. See a figure of the image in Plate XXXIII, at p. 404. A similar image found in digging the bason of the canal at Basingstoke was lately presented to the Society of Antiquaries by Mr. Edmund Fry.
Many
