[lit-ideas] The Glyndebourne Picnics
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 15:47:02 EST
Echoes of Glyndebourne
My Glyndebourne Diary
From the Downland to the Glynde: an operatic intermezzo
"He knew the interlude would be long -- it was "Cav." by Mascagni, and
instead of staying for it, he rambled along the valley to the downland".
I too think I buy the Balkan theory. My favourite is "1006 and all that"
"Hengist and his wife (or horse)"-- I know that's Kent. Seax means axe in
Saxon,
too. This was important operatically as "Santa Chiara" was by this Saxony
aristocrat.
I too would follow the evidence and Nennius (Loeb, right?) -- if you have
time, transcribe the passage. Geary misses his Latin.
Hudson, "Nature in Downland"
Thanks to S. Ward for further notes.
It brought back to me discussions I held on the (I think now defunct)
English Dialect Study Centre (Sheffield) with R. Coates. What an expert on
things
Sussexian! I append below some notes for the sake of it, as I too would focus
on toponymy, so called.
In a message dated 3/3/2009 2:40:23 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
sedward@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
"What happened in what S. Ward calls the 'dark ages' of what was to become
Sussex?"
Exactly!
It all depends, unfortunately, on your view point because the available
evidence is scant and open to interpretation. The most important debate is
whether the South Saxons were brought in by ambitious local Brits (The
Balkanisation Theory), or whether they were heroic seaborne invaders as the
chronicles would have us believe. I tend towards the former interpretation,
but leave room for the possibility of a landing or two. The other debate is
one between tradition and evidence over the route the South Saxons took in
their take-over. Tradition has a west-east flow of battles, whilst evidence
suggests an east-west progression. I favour the evidence. And if you want
Romance, there's always the possibility that Arthur fought his first battle
just south east of Lewes at the mouth of what is now the Glynde. You need
Nennius and a stack of archaeological articles to get the context of this
one.
That and a measure of disbelief over the historicity of said Arthur."
Well, Prof. Coates has
"A guide to the dialect of Sussex"
as a "Publication pending".
From his notes I gather: Suosexe or Suoseaxe, then Suoseaxnaland. Many names
in Sussex are Saxon names, the Saxons having invaded in 477AD, settled the
lowlands of Sussex and named most of what we see today. The names as they were
told by the locals with their thick rural Sussex accents. Modern problems
have been caused by the Ordnance Survey who got several names wrong and
appeared
to make quite a few up as they created the maps we see today. Unfortunately,
most people have only these maps to go by."
Coates has studied Alfriston Buncton Caburn (Mount) Chanctonbury
Ring/Hill Cold Crouch Combe Hill Chiddingly Wood Cissbury Ring
Cuckmere (River) Ditchling Ditchling Beacon Frog Firle Glynde Harrow
Hill Highdown Hill Hindover Hill Litlington Lullington Milton Street
New Barn Down Oxteddle Bottom Philpots Promontory Camp Pingwell Haw
Ranscombe (Camp and Farm) St. Roche's Hill Tas Combe
The Trundle Westmeston Wilmington (Long Man of) Windover Hill Winton
Wiston
Refs.
Glover, Judith : Sussex Place Names, Countryside Books 1997 Mawer, A. &
Stenton, F.M. : The Place Names of Sussex (Parts I & II), Cam. UP 1929
Morris, John (Ed.) : Domesday Book (Sussex), Phillimore 1976 Parish, Rev W.
D. & Hall, Helena : Sussex Dialect Dictionary, Gardners 1957 Roberts, R.G. :
The Place Names of Sussex, Cam. UP 1914 Rubin, Sven : The Phonology of the
Middle English Dialect of Sussex, Lund 1951 Various : SNQ Volume 3, Sussex
Archaeological Society 1930-1931
"The county of Sussex is not greatly blessed with place names of the heathen
type and like everywhere else in England, has little in the way
archaeological remains relating to Pagan Saxon religious practices. The lack of
suitable
names is somewhat strange, as Sussex, along with the Isle of Wight are
considered to be the last places Christianised in England."
"Whilst there are some signs of Christianity in late Roman times, this seems
to have been wiped out with the invasion of the Saxons. It is often thought
that Christianity didn't return to Sussex until St. Wilfid, Bishop of York,
came to Sussex in 678 after being thrown out of Northumbria. However Bede
records some Irish monks living in the area of Bosham before the arrival of
Wilfrid (Brandon 1978 p.169)."
"Folklore Concerning Pagan Saxons. The Pagan god Thor is a character in a
story about a group of barrows on Treyford Hill called the 'Devil's Jumps'
(SU825173). This piece of lore also, rather unsurprisingly, involves the Devil.
The story goes thus : "In the old days, the god Thor was fond of sitting on
the top of Treyford Hill for a rest. One day the Devil came by, and seeing the
five barrows, he took it into his head to amuse himself leaping through the
air from one to another. All this thumping and jumping disturbed Thor, who
woke up in a temper, and shouted: 'Go Away!'. But Old Nick only laughed and
jeered at him. 'Poor old Thor!' he said. 'Don't you wish you could jump like
me?
But your too old to be jumping about', said he. The words were no sooner out
of his mouth than Thor upped with a huge stone and hurled it straight at
him. It got him full in the midriff, just as he was in the middle of his
finest
jump. So the old Devil, he gave a great yell, and he took himself off double
quick. And he has never been seen there from that day to this, though of
course the mounds are still there." (Simpson 1973 p.61)
"One possible site has been put forward recently as a Saxon shrine in
Sussex. Chris Butler's excavations near Friars Oak, Hassocks revealed a square
post-hole building which was interpreted as a shrine (Butler 2000 p.20). The
building was roughly 3 metres square with an entrance on the south side and
contained a floor area containing daub and evidence of burning, including the
remains of burnt planks, which suggests the building was burnt down at some
point. A divide of burnt material across the floor split the building in two,
with
the entrance being into the western side, with access into the other side
through a gap in the partition. The post-holes surrounding the burnt floor area
show no sign of burning. Pottery dated the building to around the beginning
of the seventh century. The building interpretation as a shrine is down to the
small size of the structure, which is too small for habitation, and its
similarity to buildings found in Saxon burial grounds."
"The Old English Hearg means a heathen temple on a hill, of which Sussex
possesses several possibilities. The best treatment of this element concerning
Sussex is by Richard Coates (1980 p.309). Coates lists several possibilities,
none of which he gives as certain, but some of the more probable are listed
below. As well as the names given below for which locations are broadly known,
there are other example, such as Haregedon (1203 FF), the personal name
Harewedon (1332 SR) found in the Stedham and Ringmer area and also various
names
given for an unknown site, Chusehar, Chisharwe & Cheseharegh (1330 Ipm)
(Mawer & Stenton 1929 p.165).
"The most famous of the hearg sites is Harrow Hill near Worthing in West
Sussex (TQ082100). The name was first recorded in 1813 on the Ordnance Survey
maps, though it was known by some local people as Harry Hill (Curwen & Curwen
1922 p.29), and also note that the name The Harrow Ways was given to "a fairly
level section of the Broadwater to Arundel road which stretches 1700 feet
from the Fox Inn westwards towards Hammerpot, in the parish of Angmering". The
hilltop site provides no archaeological evidence of a Saxon shrine of any
sort, but there are plenty of earlier remains. The most notable are a
collection
of Neolithic flint mines and a small hillfort from the Late Bronze-Age /
Early Iron Age. The excavations of the hillfort have some interest here as
they
show the remains of earlier ritual practices. There was no sign of huts or
occupation within the fort, but the skulls of between 50 and 100 ox were found
in a few small cuttings, with little sign of other types of bone (Holleyman
1937 p.250). Whether the name given to the hill is for an unrelated use of the
site by the Saxons or holds some memory about the Saxon use of the site is
uncertain, though the Curwens (1922 p.28) notes that many teeth were found
just
under the turf, which may suggest the latter.
"Mount Harry in the parish of Hamsey near Lewes (TQ382122) is another
possible derivation from this element, though Coates (1980 p.310) is unsure if
the
1332 subsidy roll entry for Harrow Down refers to this hill. The hill itself
is covered with little but the odd tumulus."
"This name occurs on some OS maps in the parish of Harting, which is on the
border with Hampshire. There are no early forms and little is known about it."
"This name occurs on the Clapham/Findon boundary (Wilson 1942 p.44) but no
remains of this 'stone temple' have been found. The Romano-British shrine at
Muntham Court lies fairly near the border in Findon, but it was constructed of
wood rather than stone (Burstow & Holleyman 1957 p.102)."
"The Old English Ōs or Ēs refers to a god of some sort, with Ēsa being the
plural form (Smith 1956 Vol. 1 p.159). The use of these elements is difficult
to interpret as they are so short, and Gelling (1987) makes no mention of the
element at all in her study on Pagan place names."
"The Hundred name of Easewrithe is thought to derive from this element, but
though some writers recognised the first element Esa, they thought it related
to a personal name (Mawer & Stenton 1929 p.146), with the interpretation
given here only coming later on (Rubin 1951 p.135,Smith 1956 Vol. 1 p.159).
The
hundred is now split into two, East and West, but the site that is said to
have named the hundred is in Sullington where in 1296 (SR) and 1338 (Ass)
there
is mention of one 'Robert de Esewryth' (Mawer & Stenton 1929 p.146)."
"Easebourne is the name of a village (SU895225), parish and Hundred in West
Sussex. The 'stream' referred to may be the River Rother which passes just to
the south-west of the village, but is probably the small stream that passes
through the village and leads south-west into the Rother. Again, Mawer &
Stenton (1929 p.17) give the first element as the personal name Esa, but Rubin
(1951 p.135) gives it as the element in discussion here."
"The Old English Wēoh or Wīg means an idol or a shrine (Smith 1956 Vol.
2p.254), with the latter form considered to have appeared later than the
former."
"The modern form is now a field name (Mawer & Stenton 1930 p.310) on the
boundary of the parishes of Patcham and Stanmer. The personal name of Pæccel
or
Peccel attached to this 'shrine' is thought to be the same as that in
Patching. Though no remains of such a shrine have been found, it has been
suggested
that some Romano-British buildings just to the north at Rocky Clump are the
remains of a shrine remembered in this name (Gorton & Yeates 1988 p.9). Though
this idea is generally discredited due to lack of archaeological evidence,
more recent excavations have turned up two pits, one containing an ox skull
laid on a bed of winkle and mussel shells, the other a sheep skull on a bed of
oyster shells (Funnell 2000 p.1). Similar deposits have been found in the
Romano-British shrine building at Muntham Court (Burstow & Holleyman 1957
p.102)
but also in more mundane circumstances where a similar deposit was found in
an Early Iron-Age grain storage pit at Findon Park (Fox & Wolseley 1928
p.449)."
"This spot in the parish of East Hoathly is shown on modern Ordnance Survey
maps as Old Whyly. While Mawer & Stenton (1930 p.401) suggest this as
deriving from the element in discussion, Gelling (1987 p.111) says it as likely
to
have derived from Welig (willow). The early forms are not conclusive."
"The modern Whiligh and Little Whiligh lie in the parish of Ticehurst near
the boundary with Wadhurst in East Sussex. Mawer & Stenton (1930 p.454) give
the same derivation for this name as that of Whyly above. However the old forms
are more sound and Gelling (1987 p.111) gives it the thumbs up."
"Þunor (Thunor) is the Saxon equivalent of the Scandinavian Þórr (Thor) and
from the place name evidence, seems to have been worshipped only in Saxon
areas (Smith 1956 Vol. 2 p.217). It has been generally thought that places
containing the word thunder related to this teutonic god, and while this may
be the
case with some names, others show this not to be the case, such as with
Thunders Hill (TQ552132) in the parish of Chiddingly, which is the site of a
house occupied by a family by the name of Thunder (Lower 1862 p.232)."
"This sacred grove of Thunor is located somewhere on the bounds of Barnhorne
manor (TQ707077) near Bexhill (Gelling 1987 p.107), given to Bishop Oswald
by King Offa of Mercia in 772. According to the charter, the grove is located
along a stream that leads to the salt marshes Barker 1947 p.94). This is very
uncertain as the coastline and marshes have changed dramatically over time,
but is possible that this is 'Coles Stream' and 'Crooked Ditch'. The
Thornneslond entry above is a name found somewhere in the same parish, and is
probably quite unrelated, but is presented here as a possible later form of the
name."
"Thundersbarrow Hill lies within the Downs north of Shoreham in West Sussex.
The features that probably give the hill its name lie on the southern summit
of the hill (TQ229084) and include a Barrow and an enclosed settlement.
Though the current form would indicate the site has been named after the
barrow,
which is the generally accepted view, the word borough recorded in 1801 could
derive from either a barrow or a fortified place, both of which are present
on the hill. Only earlier forms will decide which word the second element of
the name is derived from, along with whether the site is named after Thunor at
all. It should also be noted here that some lynchets on the south side of
the hill are known as Thunders Steps (Gurd & Jacobs 1924 p.83). Coates (1980
p.316) considers the name possibly relates to Thunor pending the discovery of
earlier forms. The enclosure, when excavated, produced dating evidence from
the early Iron-Age to the Romano-British period (Curwen & Curwen 1930
p.258,Burstow 1942 p.192)."
"The Goddess Friga is the Germanic equivalent of the Scandinavian Freyja,
and has also given us the name of the fifth day of the week, Friday (Frīg-dæg).
Places associated with the goddess are few and far between in England as a
whole, though the word Friday appears to be quite common. While this may be
taken as an indication of a site sacred to the goddess, having the day in a
place-name probably indicates a different meaning. Smith (1956 Vol. 1 p.187)
suggests that because Friday was sometimes a day of fasting, that the word in a
place-name could be taken to mean unproductive land, and also suggests a
connection with shunned or out of the way places. Certainly there are some
'Friday Streets' that have been found on boundaries, away from settlements
(Coates
1982 p.277), and cases where they apparently refer to a small group of houses
away from the main settlement (Mawer & Stenton 1930 p.446). Both of these
apply to a Friday Street near Langney, East Sussex (TQ621037). There are
further examples near Cuckfield (Mawer & Stenton 1930 p.266, and Horsham
(Mawer &
Stenton 1929 p.229). A Friday's East (frigedæges) lies on the same boundary as
Patchway near Stanmer (Barker 1947 p.86). While not accepting these names as
Pagan in origin, I am including here one further case in detail, more for
its situation and folkloric connections than a sound set of early forms."
"On Barpham Hill (TQ086099) on the South Downs west of Findon in West
Sussex, there are two features named Friday's Church and Friday's Well. The
first
of these actually represents a group of barrows, now ploughed out, while the
second is a clay lined depression, once a pond but now dry. The name in this
case is not known before 1896 (Collyer 1986 p.181) and was later suggested to
be a derivation from the name of the deity (Curwen & Curwen 1922 p.27). Of
several barrows or possible barrows on the hill, it is said of one of them (it
is uncertain which) that 'Queen Fridias is buried here' (Barr-Hamilton 1980
p.171. Folklore has given us another possible reason for the name of the place,
according to one shepherd, "We call it Friday's Church because the Romans
were supposed to have had a temple there, but the Ordnance map gives it as
Wepham Down" (Sharp 1929 p.588). Interestingly, Roman coins and large
quantities
of Romano-British pottery were found associated with cremations put into two
of the Bronze-Age barrows in the Romano-British period, though more pot was
found than would have been associated with the cremations themselves
(Barr-Hamilton 1980 p.177). On the meaning of 'church' in the name, Coates
(1982a
p.277,1982b p.298) gives a possible derivation from the Old Welsh Crūc
(hill/barrow/mound), though British names are rare in Sussex. Another
possibility is
the site was associated with Good Friday games, similar to those seen at the
Hove Barrow (Simpson 1973 p.112)."
"The Germanic god Wōden corresponds to the Scandinavian Óðin and is
represented by two very suspect cases in Sussex, both with the same modern form
of
the name, Wootton. Mawer & Stenton (1930 p.300,p.412) give the derivation of
both from Wūdu (wood) rather than from the name of the god."
"Wootton Farm (TQ380151) lies just to the east of East Chiltington in the
parish of that name in East Sussex. While the earliest form certainly
represents
Wūdu (Mawer & Stenton 1930 p.300), the second entry from the Domesday Book,
which represents a manor, is odd in the fact that it looses the W in from and
changes either to the element representing the god or the suffix -ingtūn
before reverting back in 1272 to the original form. The author entertains the
idea that the Domesday reference is for a separate place, though this is quite
unlikely, especially as a more intermediate form, Wodinton (Mawer 1934 p.22),
was found after the publication of the original survey and the DB reference,
if representing the god, would appear to use the Óðin element, which is
Scandinavian rather than Germanic."
"Another manor house, this time in the parish of Folkington (TQ565052).
Unfortunately the possibly interesting Wodinton from 1252 is even less
plausible
than the other example of Wootton as the -ingtūn suffix is fairly uniform
here, leaving it pretty certain that this name derives from Wūdu (wood),
despite
the earliest from from the Domesday Book, which may have suffered a similar
corruption to the first case of Wooton above. The name is included here for
completeness only."
"Unsurprisingly, the Hearg names are restricted to the Downland area, where
these hilltop temple sites are most likely to be situated. Further from this,
there does seem to be a concentration on the Downs and the low weald, which
may reflect the Saxon settlement pattern in this area of England. The
situation of many of these sites on boundaries of various sorts may be
significant,
or may just be down to the recording of these names in charters and other
documents dealing with the recording of boundaries. The existence of the Ōs
and Wē
oh elements predominantly in the Weald may represent an alternative to the
use of Hearg in the Downland areas, though there are not enough examples here
to be certain. The locations of these place names near evidence of
Romano-British ritual may also be significant, as has been shown in other
counties. Any
mention of the god Tig or Tīw in Sussex is conspicuous in its absence and
Wodin is not well represented either. The principle god represented here, if
all of the names given are indeed correct, is Thunor, and this is echoed in
the
neighbouring counties of Surrey, which has Thunderfield near the border of
Sussex along with Thursley, and Hampshire, which has Thunreslea also quite
near the Sussex border (Gelling 1997 p.160). The three reasonably safe names
in
Sussex and the possible shrine site are confined to East Sussex, perhaps due
to the existence of the See of Selsey in West Sussex which would have had a
greater Christianising influence on the area than in East Sussex."
"Going back to Romano-British times, East Sussex was then a bit of a
cultural backwater, lacking the Romanising influence of a large town like
Chichester, perhaps due to the Atrebatic tribal boundary ending at the Adur. As
well as
the stone built temples of the Romano-British period being restricted to the
area west of the Adur, this is also true of the evidence for Romano-British
Christianity in the county. Whilst the prevailing view has until recently been
that the Saxons wiped out any Romano-British culture in Sussex, this view is
now changing and the different cultural backdrops may have had an impact on
the different strengths of Saxon paganism in Sussex."
Barker, E. : Sussex Anglo-Saxon Charters, SAC Vol. 86 1947 Barr-Hamilton :
The Excavation of two Bronze-Age Barrows at Friday's Church, Barpham Hill, SAC
118 1980 Brandon, P. : The South Saxons, Phillimore 1978 Burstow, G.P. :
Secrets of Thundersbarrow, SCM Vol. 16, No. 7 1942
Burstow, G.P. & Holleyman, G.A. : Excavations at Muntham Court..., ANL Vol.
6, No. 10 1957 Butler, C. : Saxon Settlement and Earlier Remains at Friars
Oak..., Brit. Arch. Rep. Vol. 295 2000 Cameron, K. : Place-Name Evidence for
the Anglo-Saxon Invasion..., English Place-Name Society 1987
Coates, R. : Studies and Observations on Sussex Place-Names, SAC Vol. 118
1980 Coates, R. : Friday's Church, SASN 36 1982a Coates, R. : Friday's Church
-
Correction, SASN 37 1982b Collyer, H.C. : Proc. of the Croydon Nat. Hist.
Club, 1896 Curwen, E. & Curwen, E.C. : Notes on the Archaeology of Burpham...,
SAC Vol. 63 1922 Edwards : Companion from London to Brighthelmstone, 1801
(See SNQ 2 p.130) Fox, C. & Wolseley, G.R. : The Early Iron Age Site at Findon
Park, Findon, Sussex, Ant. J. Vol. 8 1928 Funnel, J. : Excavations at Rocky
Clump, Stanmer, Flint No. 43 Spring 2000) Gelling, M. : Further Thoughts on
Pagan Place-Names, in Cameron 1987 Gelling, M. : Signposts to the Past,
Phillimore 1997 Glover, J. : Sussex Place-Names Countryside Books 1997\
Gorton,
W.C.L. & Yeates, C.W. : Rocky Clump Stanmer, A Forgotton Shrine? Stanmer
Preservation Soc. 1988 Gurd, R. & Jacobs, W.J. : Surveys of Thundersbarrow
Camp and
Thunder's Steps, Brighton & Hove Archaeologist 1924 Holleyman, G. : Harrow
Hill
Excavations, 1936, SAC Vol. 78 1937 Lower, M.A. : Parochial History of
Chiddingly, SAC Vol. 14 1862 Mawer, A & Stenton, F.M. : The Place-Names of
Sussex
(2 vols), Cambridge U.P. 1929 & 1930 Rubin, S. : The Phonology of the Middle
English Dialect of Sussex, Lund 1951 Sharp, R.J. : "Friday" in Place Names,
SCM Vol.3, No. 8 1929
Simpson, J. : The Folklore of Sussex, Batsford 1973 Smith, A.H. : English
Place-Name Elements (2 Vols), Cam. U.P. 1956
Wilson, A.E. : The End of Roman Sussex and the Early Saxon Settlements, SAC
Vol. 82 1942
Sources For Early Forms AC : Ancient Charters (Pipe Roll Soc.) 1888 AD :
Ancient Deeds in PRO Ass : Assize Rolls BCS : Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum
Ch : Calendar of Charter Rolls Cicestr : Chichester Episcopal Registers (SRS
4, 8, 11) Ct : Court Rolls in BM, PRO (Lambeth) and private possession
DB : Domesday Book FA : Feudal Aids Fees : Book of Fees, 2 vols, 1922-3 FF :
Feet of Fines France : Calendar of Documents Preserved in France, 1899
G : Greenwood, Map of Sussex 1823 Hailsham : L.F. Salzmann, The History of
the Parish of Hailsham, 1901 Hope : R.C. Hope, Glossary of dialectal
place-nomenclature, 1883 Inq adq : Inquisitiones ad quod damnum, 1803 Ipm :
Calendar
of Inquisitions post Mortem IpmR : Inquisitions post mortem (Record
Commission) KCD : Kemble, Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, 6 vols, 1839-48
Lewes :
Lewes Cartulary LibE : Registers in the possesion of the Bishop of Chichester
LRMB : Miscellaneous Books of Land Revenue Pat : Calendar of Patent Rolls
Pens : HMC Report on MSS preserved at Penhurst Place PR : Pipe Rolls RH :
Rotuli Hundredorum, ed. J. Thorpe, 1769 SAC : Sussex Archaeological
collections
SNQ : Sussex Notes & Queries SR : Subsidy Rolls SRS : Sussex Record Society
TA : Tithe Awards
Cheers,
JL
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