The Even the Caer Arianrod of our Celtic forebears 

 Rainy — t ne Silver Road, as generally given though 

 y ' obviously very loosely . . . and may not the 

 name more likely, especially in connection 

 with a basic legend of the constellation of 

 Corona Borealis, be the ' Mansion of Ariand ' 

 (Ariadne) ? . . . though commonly applied to 

 the Milky Way or less often to the Northern 

 Crown, is sometimes in its modern equivalent 

 used to designate Capricorn. Naturally, to 

 astrologers, this Constellation with that of 

 Aquarius, is of greatest import, for at a certain 

 time 'the House of Saturn ' is here to be 

 discerned. 



It is a drop from such sounding names as 

 these to ' the Skinker.' Yet by this name our 

 English forefathers probably knew in common 

 speech the constellation of Aquarius. At 

 any rate a Mr. Cock, * Philomathemat,' in a 

 rare book of some 200 years ago, Meteorologiae, 

 speaks of Aquarius by this singular name, and 

 as though it were the familiar and accepted 

 designation : ' Jupiter in the Skinker opposed 

 by Saturn in the Lion did raise mighty South- 

 west Winds.' Here again in this old English 

 word, meaning a tapster, we have an analogue 

 of the Water-Pourer, that universal Zodiacal 

 sign of Aquarius. 



But for all that Horace, and following him 

 286 



