Page images
PDF
EPUB

by the Stanleys of Hooton; but the natural sandy soil is sufficient for such a purpose without building such a mound. Moreover, to the south of the mound are traces of artificial refuges, made of rough stones in modern times, which do not touch this mound; also, among the soil thrown out from the holes of the rabbits that burrow among the fir trees' roots, have been found small weapons of flint, possibly indicating an ancient site. This suggestion may perhaps find support in the name

of the field.

This mound lies a quarter of a mile beyond the end of the quarry, on natural surface, and is not the result of any quarry operations. Beside it runs the trace of an ancient trackway, in the direction of Chester, and another ancient and almost disused road leads directly towards it from Bebington, ending in what was once common land, probably the higher pasture land attached to the old communal community, but which is now enclosed. A thicklygrown fir wood shrouds this part of the hill. The township is delineated in many places by boundary stones, chiefly roughly-hewn modern posts; but those on the boundary in Prenton wood are grooved stones, that may be, but are not certainly, of great antiquity. In the adjacent district of Higher Bebington was also found the rude stone grain crusher described in the same notes; there is, therefore, other evidence to connect this neighbourhood with pre-historic occupation.

MYTHOLOGY.

Borlase, in his work on Irish Dolmens, tells us that the name of Humal, Humelus or Humblus, and Adhumbla, is associated with many pre-historic remains in Ireland, and chiefly with earthworks,

2 These are described and illustrated in "Leaves from an Antiquary's Note Book," Trans. Hist. Soc. of Lanc. and Chesh., vol. xii. (N.S.)

[ocr errors]

rather than with the stone raths, though some of the Dolmens are also associated with this name. "Jardanes places at the head of his Gothic gene'alogy, Gapt (Norse, Gaut), whose son, the ancestor "of the Royal Gothic line, is Humal." From these names we cannot dissever that of Humber, called, in the letter of King Edward to Pope Boniface, "Rex Hynorum," the traditional ancestor and leader of the Picts, who came, it was said, from Scythia to Britain, and from whom, since he was drowned in the river, the Humber took its name.

While there is no need that we should give credence to fictitious genealogies-nor did their authors intend we should-in respect to the persons therein recorded being living men, they agree in disclosing to us the fact that in this name Humal we have the name of a Baltic deity, in whom the several peoples of the Teutonic stock, who dwelt round that inland sea, recognised a mighty progenitor of their race, who may, as in the case of the Chinese Tien, have been Himmel, or Heaven itself. A southern extension of the name, applied to a tribe and district, is found in that of the Hummelinck and Humelings, who occupied a tract of moor and morass on the right bank of the Ems, north of Osnabruck. Virchou shows they were closely connected with the Frisians.

Now as the name of this great ancestor of the Baltic nations, Humal, stands in this curious position, that on the one hand we may regard it as the German Himmel, Heaven, on the other we cannot but compare it with a name as nearly as possible identical with it, that is to say, Jumalu, the sky-god of the Esthonians, after whom the oak tree was called Pan Jumalon, and worshipped. Into the meaning of this word, which became, and still is, the name of the Supreme God from Hungary to Lapland, I do not mean to go further.

[ocr errors]

Mullenhoff suggests "that the name Adhumbla was connected with Humal and Humbli, and "derived from the same source. We have the "curious fact before us, that the Scandinavian cow (Adhumbla) was a sky-goddess, like the Glas "Gaulen, the sky-coloured cow of the Irish, who "performed her round of the island once in twenty"four hours."

[ocr errors]

Mr. Borlase proceeds to work out this analogy between the mythic cow of the Irish legend, which was a myth of the sun, and the god Humli; but he omits to notice that, in some districts of North Britain, the mountain cattle bear the name of "Humlies."

It may be thought that the thread of evidence for the pre-historic traces in Storeton is a slender one, but it is from the knitting together, in the right direction, of such small strands that we get the strong cord that vouches for lost history. Here we have together the indications of pre-historic terrace cultivation, the association of the name of the thirty acres with them, an unrecognised earthwork or tumulus, which, although said to be modern, is associated, as in Ireland, with the field bearing the name of a Finnish deity, and finally, the few small worked flints found in it, that combine to mark a pre-historic site.

STONE QUARRIES.

The noted quarries of Storeton may next claim our attention, especially as they bring us to the period of Roman Britain. The great gorge trenched out along the ridge of the hill for nearly half-a-mile in length, and from 50 to 200 yards in width, and with a depth in some places of more than 150 feet, follows the line of the older upthrust of strata that has raised this hill, and is one of the most picturesque features of Wirral; the deep solid beds of

cream-white stone weathered to a silvery colour, like hoar-frost on an old pasture, and the long close fir wood that clothes the low summit has overrun the cliffs and hollows of the older part of the quarry and mingled with heather and gorse, till the greater part of it resembles a natural rocky gorge. Even some of its more modern features have an historic interest. Through the great cutting runs an abandoned and overgrown tramway, and the rails upon the old line are of a pattern used when the first railways in England were laid down: they were employed by Stephenson, and were the invention of J. Birkinshaw, who took out a patent for them in 1820. They are of what is called the "fishbellied" form, being deeper in the centre than at the ends near the sleepers. Of this make of rail. now obsolete, scarcely any examples remain; and these Storeton rails have been thought of such interest, that I was requested to assist in obtaining a specimen to place in the Civil Engineers' Museum.

To return to the earlier antiquities of the quarry we must again resort to archæology, since of history there is little or none. Probably it was originally the common property of the township or the parish of Bebington, since the general use of its stone in ancient work is limited to a comparatively small area, the red local stone being used in other neighbourhoods. The Romans, we know, used the quarry; among the inscribed and sculptured stones in Chester Museum are several that are undoubtedly from Storeton, among others the inscribed tomb of a centurion, with the following inscription :

PVB. LEG. V. MACED. ET.

VIII. AVG. ET. II. AVG. ET. XX. V.V.

VIXIT. ANNIS. LXI. ARISTIO

LIB. H.F.C.

This may be translated:-" Pub. Centurio

[ocr errors]

66

66

66

66

Legionis V Macedonico et VII Augusto, et II Augusto, et XX Valerio Victricis vixit annis "LXI. Aristio libertus heres faciendum curavit." This is given by Mr. Thompson Watkin, who also translated it thus:-"A centurion of the fifth legion [surnamed] Macedonica, and of the eighth [surnamed] Augusta, and of the second [surnamed] Augusta, and of the twentieth [surnamed] Valeria Victrix, he lived sixty-one years. Aristio [his] "freedman [and] heir caused this to be made.' The second legion, Augusta, the twentieth legion, and a vexillation of the eighth legion were in Britain A.D. 44, under the Emperor Claudius, and from continental inscriptions it would almost appear that a vexillation of the fifth legion, also named Macedonica, was also here. Mr. Watkin thought that the word PVB would indicate one of this centurion's official titles, such as CVRAT OP PVB, "Curator Operum Publicorum." And this veteran, who had served in four legions, was an important man in Deva. By means of this stone the use of Storeton quarry would appear to be dated as far back as 44 A.D.

In the centre of a large oblong stone is sunk a cavity, to receive the urn containing the ashes of the veteran who had served in four legions; and upon a second upright stone, also of Storeton stone, is cut the centurion's figure. In addition to the tombstones, fragments of a circular mausoleum were taken out of the city wall, also several Storeton stone metopes, sculptured with the legend of Actæon devoured by his dogs. These appear to have formed part of the frieze of a large building, possibly a temple. The stone was brought to Chester for constructional purposes, and by means of it we are enabled to date the use of Storeton quarry back to the Roman occupation.

By similar means we are able to ascertain that

« PreviousContinue »