It is stated in the " Zoologist," No. 1, p. 8, in a notice of Bell's "History of British Quadrupeds," that," in the days of Plutarch, bears were exported from Britain for the amusement of of the Romans."

There is a piece of land called Bear-croft in Suckley, a parish adjoining Cradley; Big Bear Hill, Little Bear Hill, and Upper and Lower Bear's Leasow in Tardebig; Bearcrofts, or Astridge or Ashridge Hill, in Powick; Bearlands Wood, Bearsland, and Upper and Lower Bearsland, in Warley Wigorn; Bearcroft Meadow, in Garlesford Court Farm, Great Malvern; and Bearcroft, in the chapelry of St. Andrew, Pershore, all in Worcestershire *. There is, likewise, Bearwood Common, near Pembridge, in Herefordshire, and Bere Forest, by Portsdown, Co. Hants.

OLD STORAGE, OR STORRIDGE.

The name of this beautiful promontory, or headland, is most probably of ancient British date, and derived from Tar, Tor, or Tarit. Mr. Bryant says the Amonians, in the early ages, built obelisks and towers, either upon artificial mounds or upon natural eminences, and called them Tar and Tor, which signified, in their language, and that of the Chaldees, both a hill and a tower. That they were oftentimes compounded, and styled Tor-is, or firetowers, on account of the light which they exhibited, and the fires which were preserved in them; and that Turit, or Tirit also signified a tower or turret §.

In the Celtic, Taran means thunder, Taranis is the name of the Celtic god of thunder, and Tan means fire||.

This being the principal, and perhaps the most ancientlynamed hill in that locality, was probably in after ages called Old

* A place called Bercroft (Bearcroft) is mentioned in Oswald's Charter, No. 680, in the "Codex Dip." Also, see Heming's "Cartulary," Vol. ii., p. 355, which states it to be on the boundary of Himbleton, Co. Worcester.

+ The descendants of Ham.

Bryant's" Ancient Mythology," Vol. i., pp. 399, 400.

§ Ibid., p. 404.

See p. 124.

Torit, Torrage, or Torage*, in contradistinction to other minor Tors in the vicinity; and there is a hill called the Tar, or Tor Coppice at the foot of it. The S, added at the beginning of the word, is a common provincial vulgarism. Old Storage is situated in the hamlet of Alfrick, in the parish of Suckley. The views from it are particularly fine; no less than six or seven counties have been frequently pointed out to me from the summit, called the Beck, near a place named the Vineyard.

If Sir Henry Spelman were right in his conjecture, that St. Augustine's Oak stood in Alfrick, I should think, from the known predilection and good taste of the ecclesiastics in the early ages for commanding situations and beautiful scenery, that the oak grew on the top of Old Storage; and indeed, until within about twenty years, the remains of a very ancient oak did actually stand close to the Beck farm-house, near to the top of the hill, and within half a field's length of the modern Beck oak, which grows quite upon the pinnacle.

There is a slight trench running across the top of the common, from east to west, close by the spot where the ancient oak stood; probably the trace of a sacred boundary.

The following are particulars of some remarkable customs still observed in this kingdom (at which slight trenches are cut), and which clearly appear to be relics of the worship either of Baal or Pales.

6

In Hone's "Every-Day Book," Vol. i., p. 594, published 1838, it is stated, that in Ireland, "May-day is called 'la na Beal-tina; and May-eve, neen na Beal-tina;' that is, day and eve of Beal's fire, from its having been, in heathen times, consecrated to the god Beal, or Belus; whence also the month of May is termed, in Irish, mi na Beal-tine.' The ceremony practised on May-eve, of making the cows leap over lighted straw, or faggots, has been generally traced to the worship of

There are Great Storage Hill and Coppice, and Little Storage Hill, in Beoley; and a fiver called Torridge, near Little Torrington, Co. Devon. + As Stitchen Hill for Pitchen Hill, Stitches for Pitches.

See further remarks on St. Augustine's Oak in the accounts of Alfrick and Abberley Hill.

that deity. It is now vulgarly used in order to save the milk from being pilfered by the good people*."

Mr. Hone also gives many instances of the custom, in various parts of the kingdom, of kindling fires, dancing round them, leaping over them, and passing through them, on Midsummer-eve, Midsummer-day, All Saints'-eve, and All Saintsday. And in Vol. ii., p. 659, it is stated that Dr. Jamieson, in his "Dictionary of the Scottish Language," mentions a festival called Beltane, or Beltein, annually held in Scotland, on Old May-day; that a town in Perthshire is called "Tillee Beltein," i.e. the eminence (or high place) of the fire of Baal; that, near this, are two druidical temples of upright stones, with a well adjacent to one of them, still held in great veneration for its sanctity, and, on that account, visited by vast numbers of superstitious people; that, in the parish of Callander (in the same county), upon Beltein-day," they cut a circular trench in the ground, sufficient to enclose the whole company assembled; that they kindle a fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk, about the consistence of a custard; that they knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the embers against a stone; and after the custard is eaten, they divide the cake into as many equal parts as there are persons present, and one part is made perfectly black with charcoal; that the bits of cake are then put into a bonnet, and drawn, blindfold, and he who draws the black bit is considered as devoted to be sacrificed to Baal, and is obliged to leap three times through the flame.

66

In a work published in 1823, by W. Grant Stewart, Esq., on "The Highland Superstitions relative to Belton-eve," the author gives the following different interpretation to the name :—

66

Belton is derived from two Galic words, conjoinedPale-tein,' signifying Pale's fire, and not Baal's fire, as some suppose. The strange relics of Pagan idolatry which gave rise to this feast was, no doubt, introduced into these countries, like many others of our more permanent superstitions, by the Druids. Pales (of whom we read in the heathenish mythologies) was the

A cant name for the fairies.

↑ Vol. i., pp. 846, 847, 848, 854, 1412, 1413, 1414, 1422.

goddess of Shepherds and protectress of Flocks. Her feast was always celebrated in the month of April, on which occasion no victim was killed, and nothing was offered but the fruits of the earth. The shepherds purified flocks with the smoke of sulphur, juniper, box-wood, rosemary, &c. They then made a large fire, round which they danced, and offered to the goddess milk, cheese, eggs, &c., holding their faces towards the east, and uttering ejaculations peculiar to the occasion. Those interesting relics of the religious opinions of our ancestors, until of late, remained pretty entire in some parts of the Highlands +."

66

There is a hillock called the Knap, at the foot of Old Storage, in Alfrick. Knap, in Saxon, means a hillock; but the Rev. E. Duke, in his work on the Druidical Temples of the County of Wilts," considers that Knap Hill, which lies between Albury and Stonehenge, was derived from Kneph, or Cneph, which, as well as Thoth, was the Egyptian or Phoenician name for Mercury. The greater probability, however, is, that the name of Knap, in Alfrick, came from the Saxon.

ALFRICK.

THE ROUND HILL, RAVENHILLS, ALFRED THE GREAT, THE DANES, AND ST. AUGUSTINE'S OAK.

Dr. Nash ("History," Vol. ii., p. 399), says :-" Alfric was anciently called Alferwyke §, and Alfredeswic;" but he does not

* See Kemble's "Saxons in England," Vol. i., pp. 366, 367, relative to Pol or Pal. There is Polsden, in Hants; and Polsdon, in Surrey; and it is possible that Podon, or Poden, in Church Honeybourne, Co. Worcester, may be similarly derived.

+ Vide the account of Pauntley.

But see the acccount of the Toothills.

§ There was a chief named Alfere, in Edward the Martyr's reign, who possessed the monastery of Evesham.-(See Mr. May's "History of Evesham," pp. 27, 28.

quote any authorities upon the subject. He, however, refers to an Inquisition, dated in 1479, in which the two chapelries of Lullesley and Afurwike+ are mentioned as belonging to the parish of Suckley; and perhaps he considered the word Afurwike as synonymous with Alferwyke or Alfredeswic.

66

In the Exemplification of a Decree," in my possession, dated 1585 §, and made relative to certain church questions between Suckley, Alfrick, and Lulsley, it is spelt Alfrick, Alfrike, (alias Awfrike,) Awfrik, Aufrik, and Alfrik; and Alfric in visitations of 1461 and 1507; and Alfrick, in an award, dated in 1524.

THE ROUND HILL.

There is a tumulus called the Round Hill || in Alfrick, and adjoining it a ridge named Walls Hill, in the Suckley Hill chain; near to it is a lane in Alfrick and Lulsley called Green Street**.

RAVENHILLS, ALFRED THE GREAT, AND THE

DANES.

To return to the name Alfredeswic, it must be observed, in the first place, that, on the borders of Alfrick and Lulsley, just by the above-mentioned Round Hill, there are places called Ravenhills, and Ravenhills Green ††, vulgo, Raffnalls Green; and the probability is that they were so called from the Danish standard of the raven, which may have been erected at the spot; for there is a hill in Yorkshire, where the Danes landed, which is so called, as will appear by the following extract from Gough's

Pp. 397, 398.

They are called Lulsey and Alfric, in Bacon's "Liber Regis," p. 977.
In "Domesday Book," it is called Svchelei in Dodintret hundred.

§ See also Nash, Vol. ii., p. 75, "Corrections and Additions."

It has within these few years been planted with ash, and no doubt will in time be so mixed up with the neighbouring coppice woods as scarcely to be discernible.

¶ Vide Iter VI.

** Ibid.

++ The former being in Alfrick, and the latter in Lulsley. In Greenwood's Map, published in 1822, the latter is by mistake called "Raffler's Green."