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Prehistoric
London
#CBTB311
Author: Miss E. O. Gordon
A thorough analysis of prehistorical, pre-Christian, Britain. This
scholarly account includes detailed descriptions and information of an
ancient land with its strange mounds and circles that bear witness to
Britain's early culture and religion. Gordon begins with the following:
'The history of a nation is the history of its religion, its attempts
to seek after and serve its God,' says an old writer. Of no nation or
country is this more true than of Great Britain, where from the
standing stones of Stennis in Orkney, to the Maen Ambres in Cornwall
-- the prehistoric remains of open-air sanctuaries -- artificial
mounds and scientifically constructed astronomical circles, bear
witness to the vigour and vitality of a national religion, which has
already passed from the primitive into the metaphysical stage, and
embodies abstract ideas, astronomical observations and a high and pure
code of morals. From the comparative study of antiquity in Chaldea,
Arabia, Persia, and Palestine, we now know this religion to have been
Druidism, one of the oldest religions in the world, and in its Asiatic
and Semitic form of Buddhism, the religion still of one-half of
mankind.
The author compares the mounds and circles in Britain to those
erected by Moses and Joshua, pointing to their similarity and elaborates
on the close connection between the religion of ancient Israel and that
of British Druidism.
This is a book that is so full of captivating historical facts, and
intriguing conjectures, that one hardly knows where to begin to focus
for such a brief account as is possible in a summary. But the
fascinating evidence revealed, through the honest efforts of serious
research, has given us a wealth of striking characters from the race of
people who have inhabited this beautiful land from its earliest days.
One especially noteworthy proposition is the author's conviction of the
kinship between the Trojans and the British and the evidence she gives
to support her position. Gordon writes:
Within the last half-century entirely new light has been thrown upon
the prehistoric history of London and its mounds, by Schliemann's
discoveries at Hissarlik, the ancient Troy in the north-west of Asia
Minor. No longer need the story be regarded as fabulous, that Brutus
the Trojan, the grandson of Aeneas (the hero of Virgil's great epic),
gave the name of Caer Troia, Troynovant or New Troy, to London. In
site and surroundings, as we have already stated, there seems to be
considerable resemblance between the historic Troy on the Scamander
and New Troy on the Thames. On the plains of Troy today may be seen
numerous conical mounds rising from out of the lagoons and swamps that
environed the citadel hill of Hissarik, akin to those that dominate
the marshes, round about the Caer and Porth of London, in prehistoric
times. Sayce's researches, moreover, prove the Trojans and the Kymry
to have been of the same stock. In his preface to Schliemann's Ilios
the professor writes: 'Thanks to the discoveries in unearthing the
remains of Ilium, we know who the Trojans originally were, that they
belonged to the Aryan family; so that we, as well as the Greeks, of
the age of Agamemnon, can hail the subjects of Priam, King of Troy, as
brethren in blood and speech.'
The author spends a number of intriguing pages, citing a
preponderance of evidence, to corroborate her conviction of a kinship
between the Trojans and Britains. Consequently, much of the book
expounds on this relationship, and supplies a great deal of fascinating
detail, elaborating on the Greek influence upon British culture and,
later on, the influence of Rome.
A variety of illustrations are scattered throughout the book which
enable the reader to better understand how the mounds and circles
appeared when they were in use and these are supported by two excellent
Appendixes by the Rev. John Griffith dealing with archaeology and
measurements.
First published in 1914 this is a reprint of the revised, 1946 edition. |
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