Darkwitch Rising (83 page)

PARLIAMENT HILL:
once known as the Llandin, it is the holiest of the sacred
VEILED HILLS
of ancient Llangarlia. Parliament Hill is still easily accessible from Hampstead Heath, and has an ancient circle just to one side of its summit.

PEGGE, CATHERINE (KATE):
Erith-reborn and one of
CHARLES II’S
mistresses when he was in exile. Kate bore him at least one child.

PEN HILL:
one of the ancient sacred
VEILED HILLS
of Llangarlia. Pen Hill has now vanished underneath the nineteenth-century urban sprawl (and waterworks) of London.

PEPYS, SAMUEL:
secretary to
SIR EDWARD MONTAGU,
and noted diarist.

RINGWALK, THE:
the medieval term for the path of the stag through the forest.

RUSSELL, LADY ANNE
: wife to
WILLIAM RUSSELL,
Earl of Bedford. Her maiden name was Anne Carr.

RUSSELL, WILLIAM:
fifth Earl of Bedford. Husband to
LADY ANNE RUSSELL
.

ST DUNSTAN’S-IN-THE-EAST:
one of the medieval churches of London. Named after St Dunstan, a martyred Saxon archbishop of Canterbury, it was first built some time in the thirteenth century, was partly destroyed during the Great Fire of London in 1666 (its steeple was rebuilt by Christopher Wren), and destroyed again during the Blitz of World War II. The steeple has been rebuilt, and the bombed and burned walls have been left standing as a memorial.

ST JAMES’ PALACE:
built by Henry VIII in Westminster in the sixteenth century, the palace remained as one of the monarchy’s principal places of residence for over three hundred years.

SIDLESAGHES:
ancient magical creatures of the land who often take the form of standing stones within the
STONE DANCES
.

SILVA, LOUIS DE:
bastard son of
SIMON GAUTIER
, Marquis de Lonquefort, and his mistress,
HELENE GARDIEN
, and friend to
CHARLES II
.

SILVIUS:
father to
BRUTUS
, murdered by
BRUTUS
in the forests outside Alba in Italy almost three thousand years ago.

SPIV:
an early twentieth-century term for a black marketeer.

STAG GOD:
one of the ancient gods of the land of
LLANGARLIA
, the Stag God is particularly associated with the forests. For aeons he was known as Og. Now that he is to rise again, he will take a new name.

STONE DANCES, THE:
the ancient circles of standing stones which dot the British Isles. See also the
CIRCLE
.

THANET, LEILA:
mistress of Langley House near Bushey Park, north of London. Wife to
THOMAS THANET
.

THANET, THOMAS:
master of Langley House, near Bushey Park, north of London. Husband to
LEILA
, and long-time friend of
JOHN THORNTON
.

THORNTON, REVEREND JOHN:
tutor to the Earl and Countess of Bedford’s (see
RUSSELL
) children at Woburn Abbey.

TOWER FIELDS:
during the medieval period and up to the end of the seventeenth century, the complex of the Tower of London was surrounded on its north-west and north-east sides by the gentle slopes of Tower Hill (see the
VEILED HILLS
). These
open grassy areas were known as Tower Fields. In the north-western portion of Tower Fields stood the crumbling remains of a medieval scaffold.

TOWER LIBERTY
(or
LIBERTIES
, or
LIBERTY OF THE TOWER
): until the nineteenth century the Tower of London and a small area surrounding it was free from the jurisdiction of the City of London. The Tower Liberty had its own courthouse and prison, and the Gentlemen (or Officers) of the Tower claimed certain rights, such as the beasts that fell off London Bridge, all swans which floated below the bridge, as well as the right to exact some tolls on goods travelling on the Thames past the Tower.

TOWER STREET WARD:
London was anciently divided into administrative wards. Tower Street Ward covered the extreme south-eastern corner of London. It contained
IDOL LANE, ST DUNSTAN’S-IN-THE-EAST
, the Customs House and many of the wharves along the Thames.

TROY:
the fabulous city of Troy sat on the western shores of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). Paris, son of the Trojan king Priam, stole away Helen from her husband, Menelaus, King of Sparta, precipitating the Trojan War in which the city-states of Greece united against Troy. Although it survived a long Greek siege, Troy was eventually destroyed due to a combination of hubris, the betrayal of the gods and Greek cunning. Those Trojans who survived the destruction scattered about the lands of the Mediterranean, either as refugees or slaves.

TROY GAME, THE:
the ancient protective sorcery which draws on the power of the ancient labyrinth in order to protect a city. In
Hades’ Daughter
Brutus and Genvissa constructed the Game, but were unable to complete it when
CORNELIA
murdered Genvissa. Now the Game has taken on a life and power of its own, and wishes only to be completed by the
KINGMAN
and the
MISTRESS OF THE LABYRINTH.

VEILED HILLS, THE:
the six sacred hills of
LLANGARLIA
, clustered above the Thames River in the area now known as London. The six hills were: Tot Hill (where now stands Westminster); the Llandin, the most sacred of the hills (now called
PARLIAMENT HILL
);
PEN HILL
; Og’s Hill (Ludgate Hill); Mag’s Hill (Cornhill); and the White Mount (Tower Hill; see
TOWER FIELDS
).

WHITEHALL PALACE:
situated on the northern bank of the Thames between Westminster and Charing Cross, and formerly known as York Place, Whitehall Palace was extensively renovated by Henry
VIII
, with various buildings and chambers added by every following monarch. By the time
CHARLES II
was born in 1630 the palace was a warren of some 2000 rooms centred about the Great Courtyard. The palace burned to the ground in 1698 when a Dutch laundress lit a fire to do her washing; all that remains now is the Great Banqueting House (outside of which
CHARLES I
lost his head).

WOBURN ABBEY:
home of the
RUSSELL
family, earls, and, later, dukes of Bedford. The site was once a medieval abbey, the lands given to the Russells by the monarchy after the dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century. Woburn Abbey is open to visitors for much of the year, and if you ask nicely, the curator might show you an engraving of the Abbey as it would have been in the seventeenth century.