1 The antiquary Leland, in his Itinerary (vol. viii, pp. 6368, and p. 75), has preserved many extracts from what he calls a "libellus incerti auctoris de comitatibus, episcopatibus, et monasteriis Angliæ." A marginal note says: "Jam comperi ipsum Gervasium [monachum Cantuariensem] hoc opusculum scripsisse postquam absolverat historiam quam scripsit de regibus Angliæ et archiepiscopis Cantuariensibus." This treatise, which he states to be the production of Gervase of Canterbury, evidently contains the original groundwork on which the above lists are founded; the preface consisting of an account of the thirty-four shires, and the religious houses being arranged under counties which observe the same order as they do in the lists I have collated. As Gervase of Canterbury brings down his chronicle to the concluding years of the twelfth century, and was contemporary with the period he illustrates, his list would naturally not contain any notice of religious establishments founded subsequently to that period. Hence we find that the list given by Leland is very imperfect when compared with those above. In addition to religious houses, Leland's list contains notices of the aquæ dulces, or rivers, hospitals, and castles in certain shires; and for the sake of comparison I here give a verbatim transcript of the portion referring to Sussex: "IN SOUTH-SAX. "Abbot: de Otteham, S. Laurentii. Can. albi. Prior: Boregrave, S. Martini; Mon. nigri. Tortington, S. Mariæ Prior: Hastings, S. Trinitatis. Can. nigri. Prior: Remsted. Moniales nigræ. Prior: Lulleminster. Moniales nigra. Prior Rospere. Moniales nigræ. Decanatus Stening: Clerici secul. Hospitale S. Jacobi: leprosi Cicestriæ. Haling insula. Aquæ dulces in South-Sex: Limene, Medeway, Ichene, Chiern, aqua de Kneppe, aqua de Bradeham. Castle at Bodiam." It is evident that the compiler of the later lists took a copy of that here ascribed by Leland to Gervase, perhaps from the phrase "ex Cancia nostra" in the prefatory portion, and adapted it to his purpose by inserting the names of additional monasteries, and cutting out all the other notices, . with the exception of the names of the castella. The Cottonian MS., Julius, C. VI, contains several leaves of the original extracts by Leland, as printed in the Itinerary. Tanner, in his Notitia Monastica, quotes from Leland's extracts the names of several monasteries that cannot be identified; and Sir T. D. Hardy, in his Descriptive Catalogue of MSS. (vol. ii, p. 536, No. 705), mentions a fourteenth century MS. in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (No. CCCCXXXVIII), entitled Gervasi Dorobernensis Mappa Mundi, which is evidently another copy of this treatise. A comparison of the portion relating to Sussex, in this MS., will show the considerable differences which exist in it from the lists I have given above. It appears rather to be the MS. to which Leland refers his extracts: "IN SUTHSEXIA DOMUS RELIGIOSE. Cicestria, Sanctæ Trinitatis De Ponte Roberti, S. Mariæ Dereford, S. Joh. Bapt. Lewes, S. Pancratii Arundel, S. Nicholai Attesele, S. Petri Boisgraue, S. Mariæ Tortintune, S. Mar. Magd. Hastinges, S. Trinitatis De Lullemenstre De Roesperre Steninges Summa xiiij. Clerici secl. n. * Monachi nigri Canonici nigri Moniales nigræ Clerici secula Leprosi Cicestria, Arundelle, Brenbre, Lewes, Peuenese, Hastinges. Limene, Medewaie, Ichene, Chierne, Aqua de Lewes, Apebrok. (To be continued.) 65 THE CERNE GIANT. BY DR. WAKE SMART. In a sequestered valley near the quaint old town of Cerne Abbas, in the county of Dorset, and hard by the spot where Æthelmar's Benedictine monastery once flourished, the eye is arrested by the apparition of a gigantic human figure rudely sculptured on the side of a lofty hill, which, to a person unaccustomed to the sight, is an astounding and probably pulsive object. There, with outstretched arm and uplifted club, as though he were the tutelary deity of the place, he stands in apparent defiance of the degenerate race below. His stature is 180 ft.; his foot (ex pede Herculem), 18 ft. long; his lower limbs, 80 ft.; body, 77; head, 22; arm, 109; and club, 121 ft. long; with various other dimensions of individual parts, in length and breadth, which we do not care to specify, as they may be found in Hutchins. As to the anatomical proportions of the relative parts of his frame, we will also remain silent, being willing to allow some license to the artist, who seems to have been puzzled with the attitude of his hero, and has represented the face and body in full front, and the feet in profile. He covers nearly an acre of ground. On the summit of the escarpment, not far above his head, called "Trendle Hill," are the remains of some very ancient earthworks, which we will describe in the words of an author to whom we shall have to refer more than once in the course of these observations. "These remains," says he, "are of very interesting character, and of considerable extent. They consist of circular and other earthworks, lines of defensive ramparts, an avenue, shallow excavations, and other indications of a British settlement. The circles are constructed each with a low vallum, but no exterior fosse, and are evidently not associated with any military purpose. Of the two principal works, one, of a somewhat oblong form, ist placed on the escarpment of the hill, immediately above the head of the giant. It is about 100 feet in its longest diameter, has a low vallum, slight exterior fosse, and a slightly elevated mound in the centre. The other is an irregular circle, 166 feet in diameter, with an opening to the south. Within it are two small circles similarly placed to the interior circles of the Abury dracontium. Each of these works is separately protected by a steep, defensive rampart with exterior fosse running athwart the ridge of the hill. The more northerly rampart has been strengthened by the overlapping of its ends; and beyond this are the traces of an avenue leading to the principal works; also two very distinct small circles, each 34 feet in diameter, and having an opening in the east. The shallow excavations, supposed to denote the sites of the residences of the British population, are thickly scattered over the whole summit of the hill." In giving this very graphic description of these ancient British vestiges, this writer was aiming at establishing a synchronism between them and the Giant, in support of a very ingenious theory to which I shall presently advert. It may be readily conceived that such a strange and unique object has engaged the attention of many thoughtful minds, for it is unquestionably a work of high antiquity; and its origin is supposed to be enveloped in much mystery, both as regards the people by whom it was portrayed, and the person or incident it was designed to represent or commemorate. Hutchins states that in 1772 there were three rude letters in the space between the lower limbs, scarcely legible; and over them three others, probably numerals; but they were not satisfactorily deciphered, and are now totally obliterated. The characters, whatsoever they were, have given birth to some curious speculations which must be wholly visionary (see Hutchins); and I find that in Stukeley's MS. no mention is made of them, which is noteworthy, as they surely would not have escaped his observation had they been there in his time. I think, then, I may say "de non apparentibus et de non existentibus eadem est ratio." The current of learned conjecture, in its most sober reveries, turned chiefly on the Saxon era, and this figure came to be considered as the representation of the Saxon god Heil, Hagle, or Hel-ith, who in certain monkish chronicles is said to have been worshipped in Dorset, and his idol destroyed by St. Augustine at Cerne, A.D. 603, when he preached Christianity to the pagan Saxons here, by whom he was treated with great indignity, which the saint retaliated by working a miracle that covered them, like the enemies of Israel of old, "with perpetual shame." Then Stukeley, in 1764, identified this god Heil with the Phoenician Hercules, or with his son Melicertes, one of whom, it is said, planted the first colony on these shores; and he suggested also that it might be the memorial of the ancient British king Eli, to commemorate his victory over the Belgæ. The name Cern-el given to Cerne, and those of El-well, El-stone, and El-wood, associated with spots in the vicinity, were marshalled, of course, in confirmation of the theory. It is, however, very doubtful whether St. Augustine did ever extend his missionary travels so far as Dorset, although his name is traditionally connected with a most pellucid spring in the churchyard at Cerne, wherein he is said to have baptized his converts. But the whole story is based upon monkish legends, and the theory founded on it must fall to the ground if unsustained by collateral and corroborative testimony, which, unhappily, is not forthcoming. Moreover, it is hardly conceivable that when St. Augustine's doctrines had taken firm hold of the people, and a flourishing monastery had risen even under the very shadow of the Giant, this effigy of a pagan idol would have been permitted to remain intact, when a little neglect, without more active measures, would have soon obliterated it; whilst, on the other hand, it is manifest that its preservation must have been diligently cared for. Many years have passed since the gentleman to whom I have alluded published that delightful little work, wherein, by a most ingenious and clever train of reasoning, he attempted to prove that the Giant must be regarded as the representative of the Celtic deity Baal, Bel, or Belinus, symbolising the sun; and as a monument designed to commemorate a great fact in the history of the Durotriges, which was nothing less than a radical change in their religion from the worship of the serpent to that of the sun, and which was effected by the instrumentality of the Kelto-Belga, who were supposed to have conquered the Durotrigian Keltæ, and supplanted their ancient form of religion with this newer mode of idolatry. In confirmation of this view he appeals to the earthworks on the summit of the hill, which he assumes to be the site of an Ophic sanctuary; devoted, of course, subsequently, to the mysteries of Sabeanism. "Se non e vero, e ben trovato," a theory that, like the "baseless fabric of a vision," needs a more substantial foundation to stand upon. |