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AMBROSIAE PETRAE

IN connection with the Bambury stone in Worcestershire, Mr. Jabez Allies remarks, and Dr. Nash is of the same opinion, that it was in all probability originally Ambury. He then gives us several examples of the occurrence of this name--as Ambreforde in Yorkshire, Ambrelie in Sussex, Ambresberie in Wilts, Ambresdone in Oxfordshire, and many others. [a]

"The ancients distinguished stones, erected with a religious view, by the name of amber, by which was signified anything solar and divine. [b]

"Respecting the Phoenicians being the founders of the Druidical discipline in Britain, one fact weighs more with me than a thousand arguments. I allude to the Tyrian coin, on which appear the tree, the sacred fire, the two stone pillars of Hercules (Thoth), and the singular legend, Tyr. Col. (Colony of Tvrians), and the still more remarkable words under the erect stones, AMBPOΣIE IIETPE (Ambrosiae Petrae), the anointed rocks. Let the reader remember the monkish traditions of Ambrosius, the exact likeness of these pillars on this coin to the stones at Stonehenge, the Ambrosiae Petrae; and if he does not think the origin of Ambrosbury, or Amesbury, was derived from the Ambrosiae Petrae, or anointed rocks of the Tyrian colonists, he will think the coincidence most remarkable." [c]

"Main Ambrosiae petrae ambrosiae, signify the stones anointed with holy oil, consecrated; or, in a general sense, a temple, altar, or place of worship." [d]

[a] Allies' "Worcestershire"

[b] Bryant's "Ancient Mythology"

[c] Bowles' "Hermes Britannicus."

[d] Stukeley, Stonehenge, See Akerman "On the Stone Worship, of the Ancients, Illustrated by their Coins." "Transactions of the Numismatic Society," January 1838.