Hermes Britannicus; A Dissertation on the Celtic Deity, Teutates, the Mercurius of Caesar, in Further Proof and Corroboration of the Origin and Designation of the Great Temple at Abury, in Wiltshire

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1828 Excerpt: ... CHAP. VI. Concluding observations on the British Mercury. We have thus traced Druidical moral doctrine, astronomy, knowledge of one God, and even the bards and their harps, to Egypt, if not to Thoth or Mercury. Let us now see what memorials we have of this great deity among the Celts themselves. His name in Celtic was Du Taith, from whence Lucan calls him Teutates. According to my idea, Thoth, Taute, Toute, Tot, Tut, Tad, Ted, Tet, are all derived from the same Celtic root, and are, in names of places in England, indicative of some tumulus, or conical hill, dedicated to the great Celtic god Taute or Mercury, when there were, ubique per Angliam, plurima simulacra, according to the testimony of Caesar. From this name I should consider as deduced Tutbury, Totteridge, Tadcaster, Tetworth, &c. (Oxfordshire). The hills about Tetworth are all such as I should call Tautes, of the shape of those "Our father" in Celtic is Tad. in Dorsetshire called Toutes, or commonly Teuts, leading to the principal elevation, "on which" now stands West Wycomb church, (probably succeeding a sacred Celtic simulacrum). Tottenham, near London, is on a natural rise. Tottle, or Turtle, or Tothill-fields, is a level; but we might conclude, as there were many hills similar to the Mercurii tumulus, Abury in Wiltshire, so, near a great city, the hill of Taute might be levelled, as Marden-f-was in Wiltshire a few years ago. Indeed Norden, the topographer of Westminster in the reign of Elizabeth, affords a singular corroboration of this: " Tootehill-streete, lying on the west part of this cytie, takeih name of a hill near it, which is called Toote-hill, in the great feyld near the street." So the hill was existing in Norden's time; and in Rocque's map, 1746, a hill is shown in Tothill-fields, ...