NEW GOVERNOR’S GIFT

Taranaki Daily News, 19 December 1929, Page 11

NEW GOVERNOR’S GIFT

PORTION OF OLD PARK. WHAT HAPPENED LONG AGO. ‘. ; Soon people in England \vill be able to walk through the old Deer Park at Lydhey in Gloucestershire to a place .where very strange -things happened long ago. .. ’ ; Lord Bledisloe, Governor-General designate of New Zealand, has decided to offer the most interesting and beautiful part of his park to the British Government. .' - . .

Here long ago stood a great temple. It was in°the day of the Roman occupation, says an English ne we paper, and the «od was probably a Celtic deity who liacF something in common with one of tlie Roman gods, eo that Roman 'and Celt worshipped him. Perhaps he was a sun god .or a river god; at any rate he seems to have been a god of healing'. ' ' ’ . I , People need to' make pilgrimages to his temple; and it must have been a common eight to see gouty Roman governors borne up the hill in their litters, or soldiers limping up on crutches, or British farming folk travelling slowly and ‘ painfully on little shaggy horses, all to’ beg the god of the temple to cure them.

There was a big hospitium where the pilgrims lodged, and there were many little buildings which may have been shops or. may. hay# chambers. Antiquaries state that these dreaiii chambers were used for medita ; . tion by devout disdiples of the god. It was a busy place long ago, this green hill among the tall trees. Here came flushed people talking of wonderful cures, and white-faced people eager for help, and indigriant people talking of a heresy called iChristianity beginning to spread’ through the Empire, and priests who W’erb dreamers and priests z who were;- little more than cheats.-' ' :

But in the fifth feentury Rome was so beset with eneiiiies that she called her legions home.‘ "’Saxon invaders fell upon the shores of' Britain. The temple w-as looted and the god forgotten. Such is the story that has been pieced together from the things dug jip bn this ancient site. Lord Bledieloe hazards a guess about its subsequent history. It is only a guess, but a delightful one;. Who knows, he" asks, whether King Arthur might not have brought enlightenment, "chivalry, and romance into this darkened environment, and perhaps have fought on the spot about 540, ,A;D.. the battle of Mons Badonicus in which he himself is said to have, been slaiAfr'Art