The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-10-15
The Horse as Name in England.

1.-THE Cornhill Msgazine.l
Among the most sacred animals of the Ary-
an race the horse certainly takes the first rank.
Even in the old Hindu poems the sacrifice of 3
horse forms the highest ceremony of the primi-
tive Aryan religion; and We learn from Taeitus
that the Germans of his time kept white hors-
es in the temple enclosures at the public ex-
pense, and took suguries from their snortings
and neighings. The horse was always buried
by the dead warriors side, and still accomps-
MES the military funeral to his masters grave.
Even in our own day, horseshoe is lucky
object, and the horse shares to some extent in
the feeling for the sanctity OF life Among the
Low Dutch and early English tribes near the
old mouths of the Rhine aud the Ebe the
horse seems to have been specially sacred.
white horse rampant forms even now the cog
nizance of Hanover and Brunswick. When
the Jutes, Saxons and English came to the
land which was to be called after them Eng
land. they brought with them their emblem Of
the white horse, which serves in modern
times as the ensign Of Kent, the earliest Teu-
tonic kingdom in Britain. Their leaders,
real or mythical, bore the names of Hengest
and Horsa, the stallion and the mare. Many
Of the places connected with the legendary
tale Of the conquest have names compounded
with the word horse, as at Horstead Horsted-
keynes, Horsham, and Horsley. The progress
| inland Of the West Saxons seems to be marked
by the white horse cut into the chalk downs Of
Vantage aid Westbury. The final victory OF
| Ecgberht over the West Welsh, or Cornish,
was won at Hengestesdun in Cornwall, now
Ir:- tIxsof fO 10 HOwn WhauOa
the surnames Hingeston and Kingston. In
short, the horse, or Horsa, and the stallion, OF
Hang est-man or animal, as you will are
mixed up with all the story OF the English con-
| quest of South Britain, and even when the
| missionaries first came the eating of horsehesh
was made by them the chief test OF adherence
| to English heathendom. Now, the sons of tho
| horse, or the Horsings, though no mention oc-
/ ours of them in our documents, have left their
| mark at two places called Horsington, one OF
/ them in Lincolnshire, and the other in Somer-
| set. Almost as sacred as the horse among ami
| mails was the ash among trees; and the son OF
| Hengest who succeeded him as King of Kent
| was named Esc or Ash, from whom the subse-
| or Ashinss (The Anglo-Ssxons spelled almost
| as vilely as Mr.. Isaac Ptman and the spelling
| refnrmers and the best way for modern read
| er to do is to dismiss their orthography sum-
| marily, and read the words at once ss If they
| were latter-day English One OF Mr.. kembles
| charters contains mention of certain other
| Escings in Surrey, and the clan has left its
| name In slightly corrupted form at Ashendon
| in Bucks and elsewhere. The Behring'S, or sons
/ of the bear, mentioned in another charter,
| have perhaps stamped their names upon four
spots called Bennington, in the coun,
/ ties of Durham, Gloucester, Salop, and
Worcester, respectively. The Buccings,
/ or sons Of of the buck, have made
| themselves home at Buckingham; while the
| very similar Boccings, who trace their descent
/ rather from the beech still survive at Booking
/ in Essex and Suffolk. The birch. another
/ highly sacred tree, was the ancestor OF the
| Bercing-, or as We should now say bircnlhgs'
/ who dWelt originally at Birchington in Kent.
1 The wolf was also favorlte Teuionic Beast,
| whose name belongs in the simple form To one
| of the characters in Beowuif, while it makes
| up the last syllable not only in that heros
| own name, but also in those OF Alhelwuif,
| Eadwulf, Beorhtwulf, and many oIher old
| English celebrities. His sons, the Wulhngs,
are mentioned in one of the charters in the Co.
dex Diplomaticus; but if they ever settled q
| Wolvington or Nottingham, 1t IS not now 10
be discovered on the map of England. That
| oommonest and most ubiquitous of totems, the
| snake, however, fares better. His old English
| name is wyrm-that is, worm-wh1ch we nave
| now degraded so as to apply to the earth worm
| only though in blind-worm and slow worm 1t
| still retains shade of it's original meaning.
| The ScandinayiaDs, as usual, dropped the W,
| changing worm into orm just as they changed
wylf into ulf so that the Great Orn's Head
means the Snakes Head. Orm with them
was a personal name, which we get at Orms-
kirk-that is to say, Orm's Church. Some
such primitive English Wynn perhaps gave
his name to the family of the Wyrmings, who
are now amply represented at Wormingtord
in Essex, Worminghall in Bucks, and Worm
ington in Gloucester. Finally, to close our
irst list of plant and animal totems,, that
holy Teutonic tree, the thorn, was the fore
father of the Thornings, mentioned in a Ken
tish charter, and another branch OF the Thorn.
ings were clearly the first inhabitants OF
| Thornngton in NOrthumbesland.