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diff --git a/old/63263-0.txt b/old/63263-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index f7a967d..0000000 --- a/old/63263-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2966 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Place Names in Kent, by John Horsley - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Place Names in Kent - -Author: John Horsley - -Release Date: September 22, 2020 [EBook #63263] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLACE NAMES IN KENT *** - - - - -Produced by Brian Coe, Stephen Hutcheson, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - PLACE NAMES - IN KENT. - - - BY - CANON J. W. HORSLEY, - _Late Vicar of Detling_. - - - Price 3/6 Net. - - MAIDSTONE: - “South Eastern Gazette” Newspaper Co., Ltd., - 4, High Street. - 1921. - - - - - INDEX - - - Page. - Place-names of Celtic Origin 9 - Roman Names in Kent 17 - Teutonic (Jutish) Names in Kent 20 - Saxon or Jutish Suffixes 26 - Some Common Saxon Elements in Place-names 29 - The Northmen in Kent 42 - The Islands of Kent 46 - Variations in the Spelling of Place-names 49 - Ecclesiastical Place-names 52 - Place-names from Persons 54 - Absurdities in Derivation 57 - Our “Tons” and “Stones” 60 - Our “Hams” 63 - Our “Soles,” “Burys” and “Hithes” 68 - Our “Cold Harbours” 71 - Anderida 74 - Land Divisions of Kent 78 - - - - - INTRODUCTION. - - -When I was a school boy at Canterbury, in the fifties and sixties, my -first interest in philology was evoked by Trench on _The Study of -Words_, and by the more elaborate pioneer work, Isaac Taylor’s _Words -and Places_, while oral instruction was afforded by the lectures of Dean -Alford and the class teaching of my Headmaster, Mitchinson. All four of -these leaders having been clergymen, it is perhaps fitting that, at a -considerable distance, both of time and of ability, another cleric -should attempt to localize some of their general teaching. - -Becoming aware in 1920 that there was no book dealing with the _Place -Names of Kent_, such as has been produced by individuals or small -committees in the case of some other counties, twenty in number; finding -also by correspondence that McClure, the author of _British Place Names -in Their Historical Setting_, says “Kent is one of the most difficult -regions in England to trace its topographical history,” I set to work to -read all I could that bore upon the subject. Especially when laid up by -an ailment, I read through twenty-six volumes of _Archælogia Cantiana_, -and found therein a productive quarry. Then, to facilitate the future -labours of those more competent to deal fully with the subject, I wrote -a series of weekly articles in the _South Eastern Gazette_ last winter, -which were found of interest, Mr. E. Salter Davies asking me to write -something for the _Kent Education Gazette_ to enlist the co-operation of -school teachers, and to remind them of the educational benefit to their -pupils of a study of local names. - -In some parts of England and Wales this study of local place names has -been taken up with enthusiasm by teachers and scholars, and in this -connexion it should be noted that the names of every lane, house, and -field and wood, should be ascertained and recorded, even if no meaning -can be found. Names of this kind change, and the old folk who could say -why a name was given will not be always with us. “Terriers” and Tithe -Maps, which can be consulted, if not borrowed, will give more names than -ordinary maps. - -To such enquiries we may be stimulated by shame when we know that Kent -is one of the counties without a work on its place names, and even more -by the fact that Norway has been at work in this direction since -1896—the Church and the State collaborating and a State grant helping in -the production of the nineteen volumes already published. So too, in -Sweden, a committee was appointed by Royal authority in 1901, and one -province has already been dealt with exhaustively. Denmark also from -1910, under the Ministry of Education, and with State grants, thus -recognised the linguistic and historico-archæological importance of such -studies. - -And yet none of these enlightened and progressive kingdoms have anything -like the advantage that England possesses in its Saxon Charters and its -Domesday Book. More honour to them, more shame to us! - -Let it be clearly understood, however, from the first that I am not -writing as an expert on these matters, nor as having a direct knowledge -of Celtic or of Saxon. All I have attempted has been simply to collect, -for the benefit of those who shall be attracted to the study of our -place-names as elucidating the ancient history of the County, -information from many sources which will save them the time and labour -of finding out for themselves whether a particular name is old enough to -be found in Domesday Book, or in later Saxon charters and wills; and -especially there has been in my mind the hope that a committee may be -appointed to deal as well with Kent as other Counties have been, -especially by the great Anglo-Saxon scholars, Professor Skeats, -Professor Craigie, of Oxford, and Professor Mawer, of Newcastle. For -such literary artizans and architects as I hope may shortly arise, I am -more than content to have been but a day labourer, a collector of -material which others may find worthy of scrutiny and perhaps of use. - - [Illustration: decorative glyph] - - - - - PLACE NAMES IN KENT. - - - - - Place Names of Celtic Origin. - - -Men of Kent must not make too much of their county motto, _Invicta_. As -a matter of fact, we have been conquered at various times, and sometimes -before the rest of England succumbed to the invader. The aborigines, who -were probably somewhat like the Esquimeaux, a small race, having only -stone weapons and tools, lived on the fringe of the great glacier of the -last Ice Age (perhaps 50,000 years ago), which enabled one (though -doubtless no one tried) to walk from what is now Middlesex and Kent to -the North Pole; even the present North Sea being part of the great sheet -of ice which covered all our land down to the north bank of the Thames. -When climatic conditions altered for the better, England (to call it by -its much later name) became desirable to the great west-ward migration -of the Celts, who had already over-run all North Europe. This was the -first of the five great waves of peoples who from the East seized on -Europe, each driving its predecessor westward. The Celtic is, at any -rate, the first to be clearly traced. It was divisible into the Gadhelic -and the Cymric (or Brythonic) element, from the former the Erse, Gaelic, -and Manx languages being derived, and from the latter the Welsh and the -Breton (Ancient British and Gaulish, the Cornish, and probably the -Pictish). - -The first branch is said to have passed into Britain about 800 B.C., and -the second about 630 B.C. Thenceforward, but for a few place-names, -chiefly of rivers and heights, and still fewer words which have survived -in our tongue, we know little until the visit of Julius Cæsar in B.C. -54, from whose _Gallic War_ we learn of some of the Celtic tribe-names -and place-names. Otherwise we know little apart from the river roots -which we find all over N. Europe (and hardly any in England are -non-Celtic), especially the five main words for river or -water—Afon—Dur—Esk—Rhe—and Don. - -Kent itself in the earliest records is found as Ceant from the Celtic -Cenn—a head or headland, which again appears on the other side of our -land as the Mull of Cantire. We have also our Chevening, which, like -Chevenage, embodies the Celtic Cefn—ridge (still Cefn in Welsh). And -“Kits Coty House” on our neighbouring Down gives us Ked—a hollow, and -Coit—a wood, i.e., the hollow dolmen in the wood. Mote Park sounds -modern enough to some; but our “park” is the Celtic parwyg, an enclosed -place, while the much later Anglo-Saxon Mote denotes a place of local -assembly. Dun was their word for a hill-fort, and so we have Croydon -(with a Saxon prefix) for the fortress on the chalk range, though most -of the old British fortresses which preserved the name when occupied by -Romans or Saxons are in other counties. Penshurst, on the other hand, -has a Saxon suffix to the Celtic Pen, still unchanged in Welsh as -meaning a head or hill, perhaps only a dialectic form of the Gaelic -Ceann, or Ken, which we have already noted in “Kent.” - -As to whether the names of Romney and Romney Marsh have a Celtic -element, opinions differ. Isaac Taylor, in his _Words and Places_, has -little doubt that they come “from the Gaelic ruimne,” a marsh, and -instances Ramsey, in the Fens, as coming from the same source, and finds -it also in Ramsgate, i.e., the passage through an opening in the cliffs -to the marshes behind. But he wrote in 1864, and in some respects is -considered too imaginative by modern philologists. Ruim is undoubtedly -the British name of Thanet—Ruoihm, or Ruoichim—preceding Tenit, -Tenitland, Thanet—so perhaps the situation of Ramsgate in Thanet is all -we have to consider. McClure ignores “ruimne” as a derivation; but does -not explain the Rumin as a name of the district. The oldest English form -is in a charter of 697 A.D. Rumining—seta, i.e., the dwellings of the -people of Rumin, and he inclines (though admitting it may be -far-fetched) to derive from “Roman,” since the whole region is full of -Roman associations. Our common suffix “den,” for a deep wooded valley, -gives us probably a Celtic word adopted by the conquering Jutes. Perhaps -the explanation for so few Celtic names of places having survived is -accounted for by the thoroughness with which the invading Jutes either -slew or drove far westwards the Celts, and so re-named whatever -settlements they made. Thus, in 452 A.D., according to the _Saxon -Chronicle_, Hengist slew 4,000 Britons at Crayford, and these must have -formed a large proportion of the population, and this was only one of a -series of victories which drove the Celts backward into the far west. -Purely Celtic Kent was prehistoric; Romano-Celtic it was from B.C. 55 to -A.D. 413, and yet marvellously little remains of either element. - -This mighty race has left us little record, though its language survives -in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. In Maidstone Museum we can study its -weapons, its ornaments, and its methods of sepulture; but in our walks -in Kent we are rarely reminded of its long, as well as ancient, -occupation of the soil. Yet in what we might consider the purest English -some undoubtedly Celtic words survive, such as basket, crook, kiln, -fleam, barrow, ashlar, rasher, mattock, bran, gown, flannel. - -Availing myself of what has been written by Celtic or Saxon scholars, I -turn to the river names of Kent, of which some are obviously Celtic and -others as obviously Saxon. - - -Ash.—The western branch of the Stour is so named, and Ashford was -anciently Esshetsford. Rivers have sometimes been named from the trees -on their banks, and besides our Ash-ford, we find elsewhere Ashbrook and -Ashbourne; though the common Celtic esk for water or river may also be -considered. In this connection I note that in a direct line we have near -Detling, Boxley, Thornham, Hollingbourne (Anglo-Saxon Holeyn is holly), -possibly Bearsted from the Saxon Berc for birch, and Ashford from Aesc, -our ash. - - -Brook.—This later, or English, name for a small stream appears only as a -termination. We have Cranbrook, a reminder, like Cranbourne elsewhere, -of the time when cranes were not uncommon in England. These are the -places: Brook, a village on a tributary of the Stour; Brookland, near a -branch of the Rother; and Brook Street, near Woodchurch. And may not -Kidbrooke, or Kedbrook, be “the brook from the Coed”—the Celtic word for -a wood? - - -Bourne.—The Anglo-Saxon Burne for stream appears not only in the Bourne -and Bourne Park, and the various Nail-bournes, or intermittently flowing -brooks, but also in Bekesbourne, Bishopsbourne, Patrixbourne, -Littlebourne, the Ravensbourne, Hollingbourne, Brabourne (the broad -bourne), Northbourne, and perhaps Sittingbourne, although this is on a -creek rather than a brook. - - -Cray.—From the Saxon Cregga, a small brook, a tributary of the Darent or -Derwent. In 457 A.D. Hengist and his son Æsc (Ash, or, metaphorically, -ship) slew 4,000 Britons at Crecganford, and drove the rest out of Kent -to Lundenbyrg (London). So the _Saxon Chronicle_ records. Another old -chronicler calls this the battle of the Derwent. The valley of the Cray -contains the villages of Crayford, St. Paul’s (probably S. Paulinus’) -Cray, St. Mary’s Cray, Foot’s Cray, and the district is commonly called -the Crays. - - -Darent.—Like Dover’s Dour, from the Celtic root Dur for water or river, -comes the Der-went, of which Darent is a variation. Dwr-gwyn in Welsh is -the clear water. There are four Derwents in England, besides Lake -Derwent Water. Dartford is the ford of the Darent. - - -Dour.—The living Celtic tongues of Wales, Ireland and Scotland preserve -the Celtic Dur—Dwr in Welsh, Dur in Gælic and Erse. There are other -Dours in Fife and Aberdeen, and the Dover or Dur-beck in Notts, and in -Sussex the Roman itinerary gives Portum Adurni, whence it has been -assumed that there was an Adour river. But Prichard gives forty-four -ancient names containing this root in Italy, Germany, Gaul, and Britain. - - -Eden.—The Eden, on which is Edenbridge, is a tributary of the Medway. -Various rivers of this name are found also in Cumberland, Yorks, Fife -and Roxburgh, containing the Celtic root Dan, Don, or Den, for water or -river. - - -Lee.—This is a brook rising at Eltham Place, and giving its name to Lee -Street and Lee, thence flowing to Lewisham. The more important river Lea -on the opposite side of the Thames is called Lygan in the _Saxon -Chronicle_. In Essex also there is the Lea-beck, which shows a Celtic -name with a suffix attributable to the Danish marauders whose becks are -more common in the north of England. The dropping of the last syllable -of Lygan would give the Lee. - - -Len.—This short tributary of the Medway has been neglected by writers on -place-names; but it might be the Celtic Levn, smooth, as in Loch Leven -and three rivers of that name in Scotland, besides others in -Gloucestershire, Yorks, Cornwall, Cumberland, and Lancashire. - - -Medway.—The first syllable is adjectival, like the Tam (broad or still) -in Tamesa or Thames, and is the Celtic Mwg, vapour, whence our “muggy.” -The second is from a varying Celtic root, represented in Welsh by gwy or -wy, for water. Most of the river-names from this root are in Wales; but -besides the Medway there is the Solway, on the Scottish border, and such -names as Weymouth and Weybridge. In the _Saxon Chronicle_ it is spelled -Medewægan. Worth recording (if only to discard them) are some -derivations given in Ferguson’s _River Names_. Writing in 1862 (since -when some study has been more scientific), he gives the suggestion of -the German, Grimm, that the name refers to a cup of mead overturned by a -river god! Also that Gibson’s _Etymological Geography_ derives it from -the Latin medius because the river flows through the middle of Kent! and -this, says Gibson, is the usual acceptation. Ferguson throughout has -Sanscrit on the brain, and so refers us to a Sanscrit root, mid, to -soften, and thinks it named from its gentle flow. But which of our -Kentish rivers are not gentle? - - -Quaggy.—One of the two brooks at Lewisham. Quag may be the same as Quag -in quagmire, and the second syllable the Anglo-Saxon “ea” for water or -river, cognate with the old High German “aha” and the Latin “aqua.” In -Rosetti’s poem we find “I fouled my feet in quag-water.” - - -Ravensbourne.—When Teutonic colonists or invaders, dispossessing the -Celts, inquired the name of a stream, they took the Celtic word to be a -proper instead of a common name, and so added their own name for water -or river. Later, when the English tongue was evolved, “water” was -sometimes added to the Celtic, or Celtic-plus-Saxon, name. Thus, in -Wansbeck-water, Wan is Alfon and Evon; S is a vestige of the Gadhelic -visge; Beck is the Norse addition; and Water the later English when it -was forgotten what Wansbeck meant. Thus our present name means -River-water-river-water! So Ravensbourne (interpreted inanely in a -Lewisham print by a legend of a raven and a bone) is really the Celtic -Avon, with the Saxon addition of Bourne, so common in Kent for stream. - - -Rother.—A mainly Sussex stream which forms part of the boundary of Kent. -It is said to be the Celtic Rhud-dwr—that is Red Water. - - -Stour.—There are other rivers of this name in Suffolk, Dorset, -Warwickshire, and Worcestershire, besides the Stör in Holstein, the -Stura, a tributary of the Po, and the Stura (now the Store) in Italy, -all probably named from the union of two Celtic words for water, Is and -Dwr. Some regard it as merely the intensitive of Dwr, as in Welsh the -prefix Ys is used to intensify. Note that a unique river name is a -rarity. - - -Swale.—Bede, the Saxon historian, writes of the baptisms by S. Paulinus, -in the Sualua. This is the Swale, which makes Sheppey an island. There -are the East and the West Swale and Swalecliff, and the origin may be -from the Anglo-Saxon Swellan, to swell. There are other Swales in -Britain and Germany. - - -Thames.—This means the Broad, or Still, Water, from the Celtic adjective -Tam and the root Is for water, which is reduplicated in the name Isis -for the river at Oxford, higher than where the Thames falls into it. -There is a river Tame in four of our counties. - - -Wantsum.—This much-dwindled stream separates Thanet from the mainland, -and is called Wantsumu by Bede. The word is said to be not Celtic (as -are most river names here and on the Continent); but Teutonic. Want or -Went, meant a Way, and Som had the same qualifying force as in the word -“winsome,” that is, equivalent to the “able” in “lovable.” There is a -Wensum, a tributary of the Yare, near Norwich. While in early days the -north branch of the Stour by Thanet was not fordable, this water was -“go-able”—to coin a word. The “way” is not necessarily a water way. At -Ightham, Seven Vents is the name of a place where seven roads meet. - - -Yenlade or Yenlet.—“Applied by Lewis to the north and south mouths of -the estuary of the Wantsum, which made Thanet an island. The A.S. -gen-lad means a discharging of a river into the sea, or a smaller river -into one larger.” Ladan or hladan means to load or lade. Lambarde wrote -in 1570 “Yenlade or yenlet betokeneth an Indraught or Inlett of water -into the land.” There are two or three places of this name in the mouth -of the Thames. Yantlet Creek is in the Isle of Grain. - - -Beult.—The final t is not found in the earliest records I have seen, -where the name is Beule. One of our best Kent archæologists suggests the -Saxon verb Beauland, to turn or twist, as the origin. I think, however, -we may go further back and find no exception to the rule that most of -our rivers were named by the Celts, for I find the Erse or Irish Buol or -Biol for water, and in addition to Continental rivers which contain this -root there is the Buil (now called the Boyle) in Ireland, the Beela in -Westmorland, and the Beauly in Inverness. - - - - - Roman Names in Kent. - - -The first appearance of Kent in history is in the Gallic War of Julius -Cæsar, who paid us the compliment of saying, _Ex his omnibus, longe sunt -humanissimi qui Cantium incolunt_, on which Shakespeare wrote, “Kent in -commentaries Cæsar writ, Is termed the civil’st place in all the isle.” -Of his presence here, however, the only relic is perhaps more in the -realm of legend than of history. There is a mound or barrow at Chilham -known as Julaber’s or Juliberry’s grave, which has been referred to -Julius Laberius, an officer of Julius Cæsar, slain in a battle here -against the British Celts. Julius Cæsar left our shores 54 B.C., and our -history is a blank until A.D. 43 (roughly for a hundred years) when the -Emperor Claudius came to conquer us, in which campaign Titus took a -part, who in A.D. 70 captured Jerusalem—as later some Detling young men -entered Jerusalem under General Allenby! Kent and the Thames tribes were -first conquered, and in the occupation of Britain from A.D. 43 to A.D. -418 it was the rest of the country which gave military work to the -Romans. - -Considering this long occupation, ended only by the necessary recall of -the troops to defend falling Rome, it is surprising that so few -place-names, not only in Kent but anywhere, are attributable to our -masters. Those usually instanced are Speen (anciently Spinæ, thorns); -Pontefract (the broken bridge); Chester (Castra, a camp), with its later -derivations, the Anglian Caster and the Saxon Chester; and Caerleon -(Castra Legionum—the camp of the Legions); and of these not one is in -Kent. The chief centres of the sparse population, and the natural -landmarks of rivers and mountains, preserved the names given earlier by -the Celts, while our villages with few exceptions are Scandinavian or -Teutonic, otherwise Norse or Saxon. Prof. Green, in his _History of the -English People_, is doubtless right in saying that “only in the great -towns were the Britons Romanized. The tribes of the rural districts -remained apart, speaking their own tongue and owing some traditional -allegiance to their native chiefs.” - -Kent had more than its share of the mighty road-making of Rome; more -than its share (except in the turbulent northern boundary of England) of -Roman military stations; but though the roads remain, forts are only -bits of ruins or foundations, and the names have perished or been -changed. So, too, in Kent were most of the nine Roman ports put under -the jurisdiction of the Comes Littoris Saxonici. In the Antonine -Itinerary of the fourth century the route from the Northern Wall in -Dumfriesshire to our Richborough has as its last station Londonio -(London), Noviomago (site unknown), 10 miles; Vigniacis (? Springhead), -18 miles; Durobrivis (Rochester), 9 miles; Durolevo (? near -Sittingbourne), 13 miles; Duroverno (Canterbury), 12 miles; and Rutupis -(Richborough), 12 miles. In no case has the Roman name survived, with -the exception of the twisted Rutupis, for Lundon-ium is the old name -adopted by the Romans. Other routes add Dubris (Dover), 14 miles from -Duroverno, and Portus Limanis (Lympne), 16 miles from Dubris. Where we -find Street it is, of course, the Saxon form of the Roman Strata Via, -_i.e._, paved road, and so our Kentish Stone Street ran from the -fortified port (as it was then, though inland now) of Lympne to -Canterbury; and Watling Street (the name still surviving in London and -Canterbury) from their other fortified ports of Rutupiæ (Richborough) to -Canterbury, London, Stony Stratford, and Chester. But Watling is not -Latin, and in the _Saxon Chronicle_ the name is Wæclingastræt. So, too, -the Well Street which ran from Maidstone into the Weald—with no definite -end—is the road in the Wald, or Weald, forest. We may perhaps add the -places ending in “hall” as a relic of the Roman aula. These are more -common in Thanet and Romney Marsh than elsewhere, and in both these -places Romans had much to do. - -The names given to the two Roman fortresses which guarded the Wantsum -(then an important water way), Regulbium and Rutupiæ, were hard for -Saxon lips, and so were changed into Raculf-cestre, whence Reculvers, -and Repta-caester, later Ratesburgh, whence our Richborough. So also the -Roman name of Rochester—Durobrevis (the stronghold of the bridges) -became in Saxon times, Roribis, then Hrofibrevi. This was shortened into -Hrofi, which again was later assumed to be the name of a man, and so -Bede (twelve hundred years ago) gives us Hrofes-cæster, whence our -Rochester. - -Chislet, however, earlier Cistelet, probably preserves the Roman -Casteletum, a small castle or camp. And Cheriton (there are others in -other counties) is said to be derived as to its first two syllables from -cerasus, cherry, the Romans having introduced this tree about A.D. 60. -They also brought the plum—prunes—and so we get our Plumstede for -Plumstead, adjoining Woolwich, and Plumford, in Ospringe. - -Also where Wick as a termination is not the Scandinavian Wic or Bay, and -so a coastal name, it comes from the Latin Vicus, a row of houses, and -is the Saxonised form. Thus our West Wickham, Wickhambreux, Sheldwich, -and so forth, record how the Saxons adopted but changed the name given -by the Romans. McClure suggests that Faversham (Fefres-ham in 811, -Febresham in 858, and Faversham in Domesday) may be a survival of the -Latin Faber, smith, in the most Latinized part of Kent, and on their -chief road. The first part of the word is plainly a genitive case, and -there seems to be no similar Saxon designation. - -On the Continent, as well as in England, the name Ventum, or Venta, is -the Latin for a market or sale place. Venta Silurum, for example, has -now as its neighbour Chepstow, _i.e._, Ceapstow, the Market. Having -lived for eight years as a boy in Wincheap, outside the walls of -Canterbury, it occurs to me that Win may be Ven from Ventum, while cheap -gives the Saxon synonym. Its earlier forms are Wencheape, Wyndcheps, and -Wincheapfield. Of course, it looks like winemarket, but would the Romans -have had one? And, if so, would it not have been within the walls? On -the other hand, vineyards—probably first started by the Romans—were not -uncommon much later in Kent, several near Maidstone, and one’s -estimation of the pleasantness of wine from outdoor grapes is increased -by finding in old charters that in some cases tenants were bound to -bring to an abbot or a lord of the manor “a bushel of blakenberis.” This -would sweeten and colour the English port! - -Few, indeed, are the verbal relics of the Romans, though they were here -for 400 years. While the earlier Celts have bequeathed to us many words -and names, but few works, the Romans left us few words but some mighty -works. - - - - - Teutonic (Jutish) Names in Kent. - - -The Romans who had conquered, ruled, and exploited our land for four -centuries, departed in A.D. 411, owing to the dire necessity of -defending their own land against the Goths from Northern Europe. Already -here they had been attacked and pressed southwards by the Picts of the -Highlands, aided by the Scots of Ireland. To avoid Pictish conquest the -Britons offered land and pay to the English, who up to then had been -aiding the Picts. - -Who were these English? A long peninsula runs northwards (as few do) -from Denmark, and separates the North Sea from the Baltic. Herein, our -real home or cradle, dwelt three tribes of the Low German stock, Angles, -Jutes, and Saxons, and as to Kent it was the Jutes from Jutland who, -under Hengist and Horsa, in A.D. 449, landed at Ebbsfleet in Thanet, as -did others in the Isle of Wight, the Islands in both cases forming a -great naval and military station, from which the hinterlands of Kent and -Hants could be overrun. The later, and larger, seizures of the Saxons -were all the southern counties, Essex, Sussex, Middlesex, and Wessex, -while the sphere of the Angles spread upwards from what we still call -East Anglia. Quarrels with these mercenaries arose as to pay, and the -Britons of Kent resolved to fight. Hrofesceastre was too strong, and so -southward turned Hengist along the Celtic country by Kits Coty House, -and then swooped down on Aylesford and won a battle which meant the -winning of England. Horsa fell in the moment of victory, and the flint -heap of Horsted preserves his name, and has been held to mark his grave. -Kentish landowners fled to France; the British labourers to the vast -forest; churches gave no sanctuary, for the heathen Jutes raged most -against the clergy. - -And so for two centuries the war of dispossession and slaughter went on, -until Britain was a land, not of Britons, but of Englishmen (Angles, or -Anglo-Saxons, as they are also called), while even of their language, as -we have seen, few words lingered. Six years later the shore-castles of -Dover, Richborough, and Lympne succumbed. Then, in A.D. 447, another -tribe, the Saxons, came for a share in the goodly spoil, overran -Anderida, the fortress of the great forest, and “slew all that were -herein, nor was there afterwards one Briton left,” at any rate, in Kent. -This Saxon, or strictly speaking, Jutish, invasion has given us most of -our blood, and the greater part of our tongue, our territorial -divisions, most names of places, and those of the days of the week. - -Following the conquerors came colonists, and in the Saxon districts of -England (and Kent is the most Saxon of all) we find the names, not of -individual immigrants, but of families or clans. These family -settlements are denoted by the termination _ing_, which was the usual -Anglo-Saxon patronymic, corresponding to our later “son” in Johnson, -etc. So the sons of Charles Brown, who died in Detling, would in earlier -days be called the Brownings—as the progeny of a duck are ducklings, and -of a goose goslings. It has been held that when the suffix ham or ton is -added it denotes a filial colony or offshoot from the original -settlement of the clan. There are between two and three thousand places -in England which contain the root “ing,” although some (mainly in the -north) come from a Norse and substantive “eng” or “ing” which means -meadow. Kemble makes 22 original settlements in Kent, and 29 filial -offshoots, whereas the western or northern counties have no original, -although, between them, 169 filial settlements. - -If we may thus distinguish two classes of place names which survive in -Kent, we have the Bobbings at Bobbing, the Hôcings at Hucking, the -Harlings at Harling, the Boerlings at Barling, the Berlings at Birling, -the Bollings at Bowling, the Garlings at Garlinge, the Hallings at -Halling, the Hircelings at Hecklinge, the Horings at Herringe, the -Mollings at Mailing, the Wealings at Welling, the Beltings at Beltring, -the Cerrings at Charing, the Petlings at Pedling, the Wickings at -Witchling, the Bermarings at Barming. In one case, however, an -individual is commemorated in a place-name—Hemmings Bay, near Margate, -is the scene of the landing of a Danish chieftain in 1009 A. D. There -were many Saxons in Thanet under Roman rule (as interments have shown), -but few place names are found there of the patronymic kind, the -exceptions being Garlinge, Birchington, Halling Court, Osinghelle, -Ellington, and Newington—of which some are doubtful. What about Detling? -one of my readers may say. I inclined for some time to the meaning deep -meadow (as Deptford is the deep fiord or bay), in allusion to its -position between the vast forest above and the extensive marshes below; -but Mr. McClure will not hear of “ing” a meadow, in the South of -England, and one Oxford Professor of Anglo-Saxon writes me as follows: -“The evidence for ing ‘meadow,’ south of Lincolnshire is so scanty or -dubious that it would require pretty strong evidence to establish its -recurrence in Kent place-names.” In that case one must fall back upon a -Saxon ancestor, and lately in Maidstone were found both Major D’Aeth and -Mr. De’Ath, whose families would be Deathlings in early Saxon days. - -Then, of offshoots, we have in Kent the Ælingtons at Allington, the -Ellings at Ellington, the Aldings at Aldington, the Eorpings at -Orpington, the Bennings at Boddington, the Gillings at Gillingham, the -Cennings at Kennington, the Cosings at Cossington, the Dodings at -Doddington, the Dœfings at Davington, the Leasings at Lossenham, the -Pœfings at Pevington, the Syfings at Sevington, the Wickings at -Wickinghurst, the Lodings at Loddington, the Ellings at Ellington, the -Bosings at Bossingden (and Bossenden), the Adings at Addington, the -Œslings at Ashlingham, and possibly the Beecings at Birchington and -Beckenham. As illustrating the westward migration of the Teutonic race -we may note, to take one clan, that, starting from Germany, the Hemings -name Hemingen in Germany, Hemminghausen in Westphalia, Hemingstadt in -Holstein, Heming in Lorraine and in Alsace, Hemington in -Northamptonshire and Somerset, and Hemingbrough in Yorks. - -It may help some in their enquiry into the origin of place-names if I -note that of old, and by Saxon lips, the vowel “e” was pronounced like -our “a.” So, in the case of Berfreystone, Berham, Bernefield, Chert, -Chertham, Crey, Dertford, Esseherst, Essetlesford, Freningham, -Herietsham, Herty, Hertleye, Hese, Mergate, Remmesgate, Reyersh, -Smeredenne, and Werehorne—the vowel sound remaining although the vowel -was changed when, for example, Hese became our Hayes. And another point -is that in the Kentish dialect th (a separate character in Saxon) often -becomes d, _e.g._, gardering for gathering, and dare and dem for there -and them. This still survives in remote places and aged persons. So -Beddersden for Bethersden. - -I may here add some instances of what in some cases aids, and in other -cases hinders, a knowledge of the origin and meaning of a -place-name—that is the very various ways in which the name has been -spelled. Generally, the earlier the form the better guide to the -meaning. It will be found that spelling was often so vague that even a -lawyer in writing an old record or will may spell a name differently in -the same document, and in most cases in mediæval times the sound of the -word ruled its spelling. Some examples of multiform names in Kent I give -here. - - -Edenbridge.—Edeling-bridge, 1225, Ethonbrigge 1457, Edonbregge 1473, -Edinbregg and Edingbregg 1483, Etonbrigge 1499, Etonbreg 1528, -Etonbridge 1534, Edulwestbridge 1539, with other forms of which I have -not noted the dates, Edelmesbrigge, Pons Edelmi. The bridge element is -clear throughout, but it would also seem that the old name of the river -Eden was the Edel. Of this there may be evidence which I have not yet -come across. - - -Bethersden in its earliest form is Beatrichesdenne (1194), which, on the -analogy of other places, would seem to point to the church being -dedicated to a local S. Beatrice; but at the same date, and since, its -patron saint was S. Margaret. Possibly an heiress Beatrice held the -manor, as Patrixbourne is called, not from the saint of the Church, but -from one who held the manor, which in Domesday was simply called Bourne. -Later I find Beterisdenne 1389, Betrycheden 1468, Betresden 1535, -Beatherisden 1552, and later Beathersden, Beddersden (by Kent dialect -change of th into d), and Bethersden. - - -Charing is Ciorminege in a Saxon charter of 799 A.D., which proved too -hard for old English or middle English mouths, so that one finds many -later variants, such as Cheerynge 1396, Carings, Cerringes (and -Cherinche in Domesday Book 1036), Cherrving (temp. Edw. 3rd), and at -last Charing in 1505. - - -Cuxton, probably derived from a personal name, like Cuckfield in Sussex, -is Codestane in Domesday, Coklestone 1472, Cokston 1503, Cokynston 1533, -Coxston 1538, Cokestone 1559, and Codstan, Coklestane, Colestane, -Cukelstane, and Cookstone in other documents. - - -Goodneston, near Ash and Wingham, is no doubt Goodwin’s Town, and once -had the name of “Godstanstone-les-Elmes, alias Nelmes, near Wingham.” In -1208 it was Gutsieston, but in 1512 had settled down into Godenston, -previous variations having been Goldstaneston, Gounceston, Groceston, -Gusseton, and Guston. - - - - - Saxon or Jutish Suffixes. - - -In the earliest days of which we have knowledge all Kent was practically -either forest or marsh, with a little cornland in Thanet and sheep -pastures in Sheppey, and it was plainly on the edges of the forests -(Blean and Anderida running right across the county from Whitstable to -Cranbrook) that the early settlers from Jutland made their homes. Like -pioneer backwoodsmen in Canada and elsewhere, they had first to clear of -trees, and then to fence, the spot each family had chosen. For 25 years -I have passed annually through the agricultural districts of Belgium, -Alsace, Lorraine, and Switzerland (and sometimes France), and two things -always strike me—that English agriculturists are not on the whole so -thrifty, so tidy, or so hardworking, as their Continental brethren, and -that abroad they seem to have neither need nor desire for hedges or -other fences. Our colonists in England, however, show in place-names how -necessary they thought enclosures to be. - -First there is the ubiquitous “_ton_” as a suffix. The sons of Ælla, the -Ellings, made their Ellington. Now “ton” means an enclosure, and -especially enclosed land with a dwelling thereon. Then it comes to -signify the house on the enclosure. In Scotland even now the “toun” is -the farmhouse and outbuildings, and in Kent I find in a charter of 1432 -a conveyance of “land with all Houses ... called Wattyshagh, formerly -called Taune.” Then, as the original house became a nucleus, and a -hamlet swelled into a village, and a village into a town, we got our -modern sense of the word, which, however, is later than the Norman -conquest. - -Even earlier than “ton” would be “_field_,” which is not the same as lea -or mead, but denotes a patch of felled or cleared land. So we have our -Chelsfield, Oakfield, Ifield, Broomfield, Whitfield, Swingfield, -Fairfield, Hothfield, Stalisfield, Clexfield, Longfield, Fieldgreen, and -Netherfield, in the more forestal part of Kent, while in the list of -parishes in the Rochester diocese, where marsh and down prevailed, I -find only one parish—Matfield—which suggests old felling of trees. -Sometimes, however, there would be attractive glades or _leys_ on the -outskirts of the forest, already pastured or cultivated to a certain -extent. Hence arose not only place-names, but nick-names (sur-names came -much later) of persons who lived or worked therein, such as John of the -Horse Ley, John of the Cow Ley, John of the Sheep Ley, John of the Swine -Ley, which later became surnames. Isaac Taylor enumerates 22 leys in -Central Kent, but one cannot test his figures without knowing what map -he used. Hence as place-names our Hartley, Swanley, Langley, Bromley, -Oakley or Ockley, Hockley, Bickley, Whitley, Boxley, Mydley, Barley, -Brenchley, Elmley, Ripley, Angley, Beverley, Gorseley Wood, Harley, -Pluckley, Throwley, Bexley, Leybourne, Shirley, Kelmsley, Ridley, -Tudeley, etc. - -Then there were, and are, the _Dens_, forty-two of them in Central Kent, -says Isaac Taylor; but Mr. Furley, in his _Weald of Kent_, says that the -great manor of Aldington alone possessed forty-four dens. It was -probably a Celtic word adopted by the Saxons, and designated a wooded -valley mostly used for swine pasture. So we have the Ardenne forest in -France and Belgium, and elsewhere in England Henley in Arden and the -Forest of Arden, which stretched from Gloucestershire to Nottingham. -Down to the 17th century the “Court of the Dens” was held at Aldington, -near Hythe, to determine pasture rights and wrongs. - -One cannot enumerate all the Kentish dens which might be found not only -on the map but in old manorial records. In old Tenterden alone there -were Pittesden, Igglesden, Strenchden, Godden, Gatesden, Bugglesden, -Finchden, Twisden, Lovedene, Haffendene, Brissendene, Haldene, and -Little Haldene as manors, of some of which even the names have departed. -I find that of the 16 parishes in the rural deanery of West Charing -eight end in den and five in hurst, and I think Furley is in error when -he says that only 16 extant parishes (as distinct from manors) in Kent -end in den. A small original settlement in a den might soon increase in -size even in early Saxon times, and so we have several parishes and -manors called Denton. Other local place-names which are due to their -position in the old forest land are those which end in _hyrst_ or, -later, hurst. Hursts and Cherts were the denser parts of the forest, and -the word is said to apply specially to wooded high ground. The two words -may be originally the same, with the old German Hart (whence the Hartz -mountains), as parent. So we have Bredhurst, Goudhurst, Hawkhurst, Hurst -Wood near Peckham, Penshurst, Sandhurst, Staplehurst, Chart, and two or -three score more. - -Another forest name is _Holt_ or Hot—more common in Surrey than in Kent. -The German is Holtz, which means both a wood and wood the material. It -is also a common prefix or suffix in Iceland. Isaac Taylor gives us only -one Holt in his table, for Central Kent at any rate, but we know -Knockholt beeches, Birchholt near Smeeth, an Acholt (Oakwood) in each of -the manors of Dartford, Wingham, and Monkton, and Hot Wood; while -further study is necessary to determine whether from Holt or from Hoath -or Hoth (a heath) come Hothfield, Oxenhoath, and Hoath or Hoad near -Reculver. “Another common suffix in the neighbourhood of ancient -forests,” says Isaac Taylor, “is Hatch—a hitch-gate, Hêche in French.” -He gives no example from Kent, but we know our Chartham Hatch, Ivy -Hatch, and Mersham Hatch and Snoll Hatch. _Wold_ or Weald, a wood, is -not so common as one would expect, but we have Sibertswold and -Wymynswold, and Waltham and Waldershare. _Snœd_ is a Saxon word for a -piece of wood in 8th century charters, and this survives in Hamersnoth -near Romney, Nod Wall near Lydd, Frisnoth near Appledore, Sibersnode in -the Hundred of Ham, Snode Hill, Snodehurst, Snodland, and Snodebeam, a -manor in Yalding. - - - - - Some Common Saxon Elements in Place-Names. - - -—HAM = Ham means homestead, but—hamm an enclosure or bend in a river, -the former being the more common. It is only by early Saxon documents -that we can tell which word is meant. Alkham for the first, perhaps the -Hundred of Ham for the latter. - - -—ING, in the middle or end of a name means “sons of.” A final ling is -also a patronymic when the name ends in ol or ele. Thus Donnington is -the settlement of the sons of Donna, and as Didling or Dudelyng in -Sussex (with 13th century forms of Dedling and Dedlinge) was derived -from Dyddeling as descendants of Dyddel, this may throw some light on -Detling in Kent. - - -—MERE = lake, or gemæru boundary. Lakes are few in Kent, so Baddlesmere -may indicate a boundary, while Mereworth (anciently Marewe) may indicate -neither. Mearesflete in Thanet, and Mere, a manor in Rainham, may point -to a personal name. Walmer is said to be named from the marshy ground -behind the Wall, or old raised beach, which begins by Walmer Castle. - - -Brōc = a brook, as in the dialects of Kent and Sussex, also low-lying -ground, not necessarily with running water. So Brook, and Brookland, and -Kidbrook. - - -Burna = stream. So Bourne, Littlebourne, etc. - - -Cnoll = hillock (Cnol in Welsh and knöl in Swedish). So Knole, and -perhaps Knockholt. - - -Cop = a top or head, German kopf. Our Copt Point. - -Cumb, or comb = a hollow in a hillside, or a narrow valley. So Ulcombe. -A word borrowed from the Celtic. - - -Dell = low ground or valley. Hence Deal. - - -Ēā = water, river. So Stur-ea, now Sturry, or watery land. So probably -Romney, from Ruimea. But ey also is īēg, or ēg = an island. Sceapige, -now Isle of Sheppey. - - -Denu is a valley, and denn a retreat, but these often interchange in -early forms with dun, which survives in our downs, and Down, the -village. - - -Ford.—Here we have to distinguish between the Saxon ford (a natural -place-name when bridges as yet were few), and fiord, which is purely -coastal, and comes from our Norse marauders. Thus Ashford and Deptford -come from quite different words. - - -Grāf, in Saxon, is our grove, so that Ashgrove is pure Saxon, Æsc-graf. - - -Heall means a hall, or larger house, and may be simply the Latin aula, -especially as place-names ending in hall are more frequent near Roman -centres. But there is also halk, a corner or angle, which may suit other -places. Our several Whitehalls would indicate the former word. - - -The Saxon HEATH survives unaltered in some cases, and also as Hoath, and -perhaps as Hoth in Hothfield. - - -Hlinc, a slope, accounts for the Linch and Linchfield in Detling, a -cultivated slope at the foot of the Downs. More common in Sussex. -Golfers will recognise the word. - - -Hōh = a hough or heel of land, whence our Hundred of Hoo. - - -Hyrcg is our ridge, and names Eridge, and Colbridge, and Sundridge. - - -Hyll = our hill, partly names many places, Bosehill, Hinxhill, Maze -Hill, Ide Hill, etc.; but I think there are more in Sussex, where -Roberts enumerates forty-eight. - - -Mersc = march—whence Stodmarsh, Burmarsh, Mersham, Westmarsh, Marshton. - - -Ofer and Ora are difficult to distinguish in use, the former meaning -bank or shore and the latter bank of a stream. Bilnor and Oare may come -from the former, and Bicknor and Denover (on the Beult) from the latter. - - -Ell, WIELL, WYLL, as a prefix, becomes our well. - - -Wudu = wood. So Saltwood is Sautwud in 1230. - - -Beorg = a hill, dative beorge, is easily confused with Burg = bush, -dative byrg, a fortified place, and then a city. From the former we get -our modern beogh, ber or barrow; from the latter our prefix Bur, and the -suffixes borough, burg, boro, and bury. The first syllable of Bearsted -may be either Beorg or Beorc, birch. Canterbury is the burg or fortified -city of the Cantwara or Kent-folk. - - -Hlu = a burial mound, developing later into the suffix low, lane, and -lew, may be found in Hadlow, and perhaps in the Hundreds of Ryngelo and -Cornilo in the Lathe of Borowart (now S. Augustine’s). - - -Considering the mainly forestal character of Saxon Kent, it is not -strange that many places are named from trees. Thus Ac = oak, appears in -Ockholt, Ackhanger, Ockley. Æsc in Ashford, Ashhurst, and several Ashes. -Our Nursted was Nutstede earlier. Perhaps to Ac also we may refer -Hocker’s Lane in Detling as a prefix to another Saxon word, ofer, a -shore or bring, though it may also be but a corruption of Oakham. In -numerous place-names, especially those derived from trees, we find this -suffix: Oakover (in Derbyshire), Ashover, Haselover, Birchover, commonly -shortened into Oaker, Asher, Hasler, and Bircher. So the lane near the -oak-tree or oak-wood would be Oakover Lane, Oaker or Ocker Lane, and -eventually Hocker’s Lane. With but one cottage in it, I can find no -tradition or trace of any personal name from which it might be called. - - -Apuldor, as for appletree, remains in Appledore; Birce or beorc, perhaps -in Bearsted, Birchington (?), Bekehurst. - - -Box, or byxe (derived from the Latin buxus) names many places, and early -forms in Bex, Bix, Bux, are found both as to Boxley and Bexley, as with -Boxhill and Bexhill in other counties. - - -Holegn = holen, adj. of holly, survives in Hollingbourne and Holborough; -Per (pear) in Perhamstead; Cherry in Cheriton; Plum in Plumstead; Elm in -Elmley, Elmstone, Elmstead, but only the wych-elm was indigenous, and -called Wice by the Saxons. Thorn we find in Thornham. - - -Haga, a Saxon name survives in our Hawthorn, and may help us to -understand the meaning of Eythorne, near Dover, and the Hundred of -Eyhorne, in which Detling is situated. The early name of Eythorne is -Hegythorne, _i.e._, Hawthorn, and the Hundred of Eythorde or Eyhorne (so -from 1347 A.D.) might well be the same, and named from the hamlet of -Iron Street is Hollingbourne, where Iron is plainly a late corruption of -an old word. - - -The Rev. E. McClure, in his _British Place-Names_, gives (p. 207 _et -seqq._) a list of words in old Saxon glossaries, ranging from the 7th to -the 9th centuries, which appear in British place-names. I extract those -which seem to apply to place-names in Kent. - - -Bodan = bottom, common in Kent for a narrow valley, _e.g._, East Bottom -at Kingsdown, near Walmer. - - -Hœgu-thorn = hedge-thorn, hawthorn, whence our Eythorne (anciently -Hegythe Thorne), Hundred of Eyhorne (Haythorn, temp. Henry III.), and -Iron Street, a hamlet in Hollingbourne in that Hundred. - - -Mapuldur = maple-tree, in our Maplescombe, _i.e._, the bowl-shaped -valley where maples abound. - - -Holegn = holly. Our Hollingbourne, and perhaps Hollandon. - - -Holt-hona = woodcock, or more exactly woodhen, like moorhen. Worhona is -Saxon for pheasant. So our Henhurst, Henwood, and Hengrove are the same. - - -Boece = beech. So our Mark Beech and Bough Beech, near Chiddingstone. -This derivation is also one of those suggested for Bearsted, whereof the -Saxon name is Beorhham-stede, and the first syllable would be either -Beorg-hill or Beorc-beech. - - -Goss = furze. Gorsley Wood, in Bishopsbourne. - - -Fleota = estuary or creek. Our Northfleet, Southfleet, Ebbsfleet, and -Mearesflete, and Flete. - - -Haesl = hazel. Hazelwood Hill, in Boughton Malherbe. - - -Beber = beaver. Beavers flourished in England even in historical times, -and gave their name to Beverley, Beaverbrook, etc. May Beaver, near -Ashford, derive thus? And the Beverley at Canterbury? - - -Pearroc = literally a grating—a place fenced in for deer, etc. So Park -and Paddock. Paddock Wood. - - -Hreed = reed. Our Reedham possibly; but it is not on marshy ground. - - -Hythae = a harbour. Our Hythe, Greenhythe, New Hythe (East Malling), -Small Hythe (Tenterden), West Hythe, and Erith (Erehithe—the old -landing-place for Lesnes Abbey on the Thames). - - -Thyrne = thorn. Our Thornham. - - -Cisil = gravel. Our Chislehurst (Cyselhurst in 973), or gravelly wood. - - -Cnol = hill-top, as in Knowle, Knowle Hill (in Boughton Malherbe), and -Knowlton. - - -Beyr = shed, cottage. Dr. Sweet makes it the same as Bur (modern Bower). -Hence perhaps our Burham and Burmarsh; but the old forms of Burham would -point rather to Borow or Borough—the walled settlement. - - -Aesc = ash. Our Ash, Ashenden, Ashford, Ashley, and Ashurst. - - -Hlep = leap. Hence Hartlip, of old Hertelepe. There are two places thus -named. - - -Pirge = pear tree. Possibly Perrywood and Perry Street. And Perhamstede -according to authorities. - - -Plum-treu = plum tree. Hence Plumstead—and Plumpton? - - -Faerh = a young pig, whence our word “farrow.” Considering that the -rearing of swine was the chief occupation in the dens, I wonder that no -one has suggested this word for the first syllable of Farleigh and -Fairlight. - - -Brycg = bridge. The Saxon had the word, but not many bridges. Most of -our eleven place-names in Kent containing this word are of post-Saxon -date, while we have fifteen “fords.” - - -Sae = sea. So our Seasalter and Seabrook. - - -Aac = oak. We have Ackholt, Acol, Acryse, Oakhurst, Oakley, and Ockholt -(now Knockholt). - -Elm, borrowed from the Latin Ulmus. The Witch-elm, called Wice in Saxon, -is indigenous, the other elm imported. We have Elmley, Elmstead, and -Elmstone. - - -Mistel = mistletoe (ta. fem.—tdig) may appear in Mistleham, near -Appledore. - - -Caelf = calf. The Saxon name for Challock was Caelf-loca-n, _i.e._, -enclosed place for calves. The second syllable suggests the Latin locus, -but is the source of our English Lock, _i.e._, shut up. So the locks on -the river; and pounds for straying cattle are “lokes” in East Anglia. - - -Pleg-huses = theatres (or recreation grounds). Our Plaistow and Plaxtol. - - -Syla = wallowing place. So our numerous Soles, which I later enumerate. - - -Dimhus and Dimhof = hiding or dark place. Our Dymchurch are instances. - - -Crocc and Hweras are both Saxon for pots. Few know what pure Saxon they -use when they talk of crockery-ware. Pottery was always a great industry -from Sittingbourne to Sheppey, and the Romans appreciated and extended -it. This may account for our Crokham Hill, Crockham, Crockhurst Street, -and Crockshard. - - -Cocca, gen. plural = chickens. Cock St., Cockham Wood, Cockshill, -Coxheath, Cockadam Shaw, while in Detling we have Cock-hill, Upper and -Lower Cox Street. Some may, of course, be modern and personal names; but -I cannot so trace them. - - -Boley Hill, near Rochester, was undoubtedly a place of civic importance -in very early days. It was a Danish meeting place corresponding to our -shire-mote at Pennington Heath, and we may best trace its name to a -Danish word which we still use—the bole of a tree. This is found in -various parts of the Danish district of Lincolnshire, and the reference -may be to the hill with a famous tree under which the court of the -community was held. Trees, as well as cromlechs or great stones, were -common landmarks in Saxon times—hence our various Stones in Kent. -Others, however, consider it a corruption of Beaulieu, a name given by -the Templars to the sites of their preceptories, and they instance a -Boley or Bully Mead in East London, which belonged to the Templars. And -others, because of its ancient legal associations, think it should be -Bailey Hill, and refer us to the Old Bailey in London. - - -Farleigh.—On a clear day from Detling Hill we can see, not only -Farleigh, near Maidstone, but Fairlight Church, near Hastings. In Saxon -days and documents these place-names were the same, and so in Domesday -(1086), each is Ferlega, the passage or fareing through the pastures or -leys, just as our modern Throwley is Trulega, with the scribes’ -variations in 12th century deeds of Thruleghe, Trulleda, Trulea, -Thrulege, and Trudlege. Fairlight, therefore, is simply a modern -corruption after a fashion which once corrupted the name of Leigh, near -Tonbridge, which I find written Legh in 1435, Ligth in 1513, Lyghe in -1525, and Lyght in 1531. It has been suggested that the first syllable -may indicate a personal name, Fær; but this seems less tenable. - - -Borstall, from the Anglo-Saxon Beorg, a hill, and stal, a dwelling (as -in Tunstall), means a path up a steep hill. So there is Borstall Hill -near Rochester, Bostall Hill near Woolwich, and Borstall Hill by -Whitstable. And I have noted a passage in White’s _Selborne_—he made a -path up the wooded steep hill near his vicarage called the Hanger, and -he writes: “Now the leaf is down, the Bostall discovers itself in a -faint, delicate line running up the Hanger.” - - -Eastry.—Lambarde thought this village was so named to distinguish it -from West-Rye, now called simply Rye, but the places are too far apart, -especially when the great forest of Anderida came between them. McClure, -our most recent authority on British place-names, would refer it to the -Rugii, a Continental clan from the Island of Rugen in the Baltic, whom -he finds represented in Sûthryge (Surrey). So he would make the word -East-ryge, and in a charter of 780 it is Eastrygena, and in another -Eastryge. But amongst the various early spellings is Eastereye, _i.e._, -Eástoregg (No, not Easter Egg!), the island of Eástor. In a will of 929, -“Æthelnoth, the reeve to Eastorege,” is mentioned. Now the next parish -is Woodnesborough, the town of Woden, the Saxon god. So here may well -be, named at the same time and by the same people, the name of Eástor, -the goddess of spring; while, as to its suffix, the centre of the -village stands higher than the rest, and is almost entirely surrounded -by a valley, though not now by water. Fewer greater authorities than -Professor Skeat are to be found, and he inclines to this interpretation. - - -Folkestone.—Here we find several interpretations, the more modern being -the most absurd. Thus Phillipott suggests the town full of folk! and -Murray’s Handbook to Kent Fulke’s Town (whoever this Fulke may have -been)! Both, however, forgot that the final syllable is always stane or -stone, and not ton. Another imaginative worthy says that its stone -quarries were much used in the 13th and 14th centuries, and belonged to -the community, and so it was the Folks’ Stone! Folcland we know; -Folcmote we know; but what is this? The _Anglo Saxon Chronicle_ says -that Harold seized ships at Folcesstane, and in Domesday it appears as -Falchestan. Harris simply Latinizes the name and calls it Lapis populi, -the stone of the people, and as in Ninnius (8th cent.) there is a -reference in his description of England to the “stone of inscription on -the Gallic sea,” which some would identify with Folkestone; he may be -more right than he knew. - - -Plaxtol, near Sevenoaks.—In many Kentish parishes (and elsewhere) the -name Pleystole or Playstool clings to a piece of land on which miracle -and other plays were acted when amusements had to be mainly home-grown. -So at Lynsted, Herbert Finch, in the sixth year of Queen Elizabeth, -bequeathed the “Playstall et Playstollcroft” fields. A variant of the -name we may find in Plaistow, by Bromley. So in Selborne (Gilbert -White’s renowned village) the Plestor is the old playground. Would that -in all villages, especially since the looting of old commons, there -might be a field thus consecrated to healthy recreation. - - -Amongst the sources of enlightenment as to the meaning of our -place-names I have turned to the volume of the English Dialect Society, -which is on the _Kentish Dialect and Provincialisms_, and was prepared -by the Revs. W. D. Parish and W. F. Shaw. It does not contain, as I have -found, nearly all our local words, and not a few of the words it does -give are by any means peculiar to Kent. Still, it is useful and -interesting, and it may well be that some of our Kent place-names are -almost peculiar to Kent, especially as the neighbouring counties of -Sussex and Essex were populated by Saxons, but Kent was populated by the -Jutes, and no doubt their common tongue had its tribal variations. I -take from this dictionary all the words which are illustrative of -place-names. - - -Forstall = “a farm-yard before a house; a paddock near a farm house; or -the farm buildings.... As a local name, Forestalls seem to have abounded -in Kent.” Two instances are given; but I have noted Broken Forestall, -Buckley; Clare’s Forestall, Throwley; Mersham Forstall; Forstall Farm, -Egerton; The Forstall, Hunton; Preston Forstall, Wingham; Painter’s -Forestall, Ospringe; Hunter’s Forstall, Herne; Fostal, Herne Hill; -Forstall, Lenham; Forstall, Aylesford; Shepherd’s Forstall, -Sheldwich—and no doubt there are more. - - -Tye.—“An extensive common pasture, such as Waldershare Tie and Old -Wives’ Lees Tie, and in a document of 1510, a croft called Wolves’ Tie.” -I would add the places called Olantigh, one near Wye and another near -Fordwich. Teig-r is really a Norse word meaning a piece of grassland, -and when borrowed or used by the Saxons it became Tigar, Tig and Tey in -such place-names as Mark’s Tey. - - -Yokelet.—“An old name in Kent for a little farm or manor.” Cake’s Yoke -is the name of a farm in Crundale. The yoke was a measure of land, -probably such as one yoke of oxen could plough. Thus it corresponds to -the Latin jugum, which means a yoke, and also a land measure. We have -also West Yoke in Ash-next-Ridley; Yoklet, a borough in Waltham; land so -named in Saltwood; and Ickham was of old Yeckham or Ioccham, from the -A.S. yeok, a yoke of arable land. Iocclet is also given in the -dictionary as a Kenticism for a small farm. - - -Bodge.—“A measure of corn, about a bushel.” May this suggest a -derivation for Bodgebury, some land with a cottage thereon, part of the -old glebe of Detling? - - -Brent.—“The Middle-English word Brent most commonly meant burnt; but -there was another Brent, an adjective which signified steep.” Thus -Brentwood in Essex is the same as Burnt Wood in Detling, but the Brents -or North Preston near Faversham, and the Brent Gate therein refer to the -steep contour of the land. A Celtic root, found in Welsh as bryn, a -ridge, accounts for many such names as Brendon Hill, Birwood Forest, -Brandon, a ridge in Essex, Breandown near Weston-super-Mare, and many -Swiss and German names for steep places. - - -Court, or Court Lodge.—“The manor house, where the court leet of the -manor is held.” So in Detling we have East Court and West Court because, -in default of a son, the old manor was divided between two co-heiresses -in the 16th century. So we have as place-names North Court in Eastling, -a Court at Street in Lympne, besides very many names of old houses, such -as Eastry Court, Selling Court, etc. - - -Down.—“A piece of high open ground, not peculiar to Kent, but perhaps -more used here than elsewhere. Thus we have Updown in Eastry, Hartsdown -and Northdown in Thanet, Leysdown in Sheppey, and Barham Downs.” I may -add Puttock’s Down (the Kite’s Down), three villages called Kingsdown, -Derry Downs, Downe, Hackemdown, Harble Down, Housedown, Kilndown, two -Underdowns, besides probably some of the names ending in don. The Celtic -dun, a hill-fortress, found all over Europe, is directly found in our -Croydon, as in London, Dunstable, etc., and the Saxon extended its use, -especially in the plural, to high ground, whether crowned with a fort or -camp or not. Trevisa wrote in 1398 “A downe is a lytel swellynge or -aresynge (arising) of erthe passynge the playne ground ... and not -retchyng to hyghnesse of an hylle.” - - -Fright or Frith.—“A thin, scrubby wood.” So the Fright Woods near -Bedgebury. And I learned to skate as a boy at the Fright Farm on Dover -Castle Hill. This may account for Frith by Newnham, and possibly also -for Frittenden. - - -Polder.—“A marsh: a piece of boggy soil.” A place in Eastry now called -Felder land was of old Polder land, and nearer Sandwich is a place still -called Polders. Poll (Celtic), Pool (Early English), Proll (Welsh), is a -common prefix to the name of a brook. Polhill, however, in Harrietsham, -is more likely to come from the great Kent family of the Polhills. So we -have Polhill Farm in Detling, and a Polhill was Vicar in 1779. - - -Rough.—“A small wood; any rough, woody place.” So Bushy Rough in the -Alkham Valley, where rises one of the sources of the river Dour. Hence -also Rough Hills in Hernhill; Rough Common near Canterbury; and perhaps -Roughway in Plaxtol, the wood being used in the Kentish rather than the -usual sense. - - -Saltings, or Salterns, or Salts.—“Salt marshes on the sea-side of the -sea-walls.” A North Kent word, naming Saltbox, and Salterns, both in -Sheppey, and probably Seasalter near Whitstable. We must find, however, -if we can, another derivation for Saltwood Castle. - - -Selynge.—Toll, custom, tribute. The Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, -used to take in the Stoure a certain custom, which was called Selynge, -of every little boat which came to an anchor before the mouth of the -said Flete. The compilers of the Dictionary say: “The parish of -Sellindge, near Hythe, probably takes its name from some such ancient -payment.” Is it possible that the old name of Sentlynge, given to S. -Mary’s Cray in Domesday Book, may point to another place of tolling -craft on the Cray? - - - - - The Northmen in Kent. - - -A _Furore Normanorum_ was a petition in an old litany in England before -it had gained that name. And with reason, for the success of Angles, -Jutes and Saxons in the conquest of England drew the attention of -Scandinavian and other Vikings, who found that booty could be gained by -rapid raids. It was at the end of the eighth century that the Danes (as -they came to be called, although the wider “Northmen” would be a better -term), reached the land of the Angles, coming from Norway to Dorset, and -generally harrying the eastern and southern coasts for a couple of -hundred years. They also remained and settled, mainly to the north of -the Humber, until at last the greater part of England came under their -power, and in 1016 Cnut became the Danish King of England. - -Our forefathers in Kent should have our sympathy for the continuous -state of alarm in which they were kept. In 832 Scandinavian pirates -ravaged Sheppey. In 838 they won a battle in Merscware (_i.e._, the land -of the Marsh-folk, _i.e._, Romney Marsh), and slew many in Canterbury. -In 851 nine of their piratical ships were taken in battle at Londovic -(Sandwich) by Æthelstan, the under-king of Kent; but they remained to -winter in Thanet for the first time, and in the same year 350 of their -ships entered the Thames and took both Cantwaraburg and Lundenburg -(London). In 853 the men of Kent, under the Alderman Ealchere, with the -men of Surrey, fought in Tenet (Thanet), but were worsted. Next year -they wintered in Sceap-ige (Sheppey). In 865 the men of Kent tried to -buy off the heathen invaders, who, however, ravaged all East Kent. - -Then arose the great man, Alfred, who in 871 had eight battles with the -Danes south of the Thames. In 885 they besieged Hrofceastre (Rochester), -but King Alfred relieved it, and the Danes took to their ships, having -lost all their horses. In 893 two hundred and fifty Danish ships came to -Limenemouth (Lympne), took their fleet four miles up the river, and made -a strong fort at Apuldore, while Hasting with 80 ships entered the -Thames estuary, made a fort at Milton, and later one at Sceobyrig -(Shoebury). In 969 Eadger orders Tenet land to be pillaged, and in 980 -Thanet is overrun by the Danes. In 986 the bishopric of Hrofceastre was -devastated. In 993 a fleet of nearly four hundred ships came to “Stone,” -which may be the one in the Isle of Oxney, or another near Faversham on -the Watling Street, or another on the Swale, and went on to Sandwic, -which was their chief southern haven, and embodies in its name the -Scandinavian wic or bay (Sandwic is a common place-name in Iceland and -Norway). - -In 994 Anlaf, King of Norway, and Sweyn, King of Denmark, with a fleet -of nearly 500, failed to take London, but ravaged Kent and other -counties. In 998 they sailed up the Medway estuary to Rochester, and -there beat the Kentish army. In 1005 a fleet came to Sandwic and -despoiled the country. - -In 1007 England despaired, and paid a tribute of £36,000, while -Thurkell’s army came to Sandwich and thence to Canterbury, where the -people of East Kent bought peace at the cost of £3,000, while the Danes -spent the winter in repairing their ships. In 1012 they took Canterbury -and martyred the Archbishop Ælfheah, better known to us as S. Alphege. -In 1013 Sweyn came again to Sandwich; but in 1014 Eadmund (Edmund -Etheling) attacked the Danes in Kent, drove them into Sheppey, and met -their leader in battle at Æglesforda (Avlesford). But in 1016 Cnut -(Canute) became King of all England, and to him in 1018 £72,000 was paid -in tribute. - -In 1203 the body of S. Alphege was allowed by Cnut to be taken to -Canterbury, and England remained a Danish province. In 1040 Harda-Cnut -was brought from Bruges to succeed Harold as King, and landed at -Sandwich. In 1046 Thanet was ravaged again by the Northmen; but in 1049 -King Edward gathered a great fleet at Sandwich against Sweyn, and later -this fleet lay at Dærentamutha (_i.e._, Darentmouth, _i.e._ Dartford). -In 1051 King Edward’s brother-in-law, Eustace, lost some followers in a -fracas at Dofra (Dover). - -But a great change was imminent, and England was to change one -domination for another, and in 1052 Wilhelm (afterwards the Conqueror) -visited King Edward the Confessor (or Saint) with a great host of -Normans, and he exiled Earl Godwin, who came from Bruges to Nœsse -(Dungeness) was driven back. Returning with his son Harold to Dungeness, -they took all the ships they could find at Rumenea (Romney), Heda -(Hythe), and Folcesstane. Thence to Dofra and Sandwich, ending up with -ravaging Sheppey and Middeltun (Milton, near Sittingbourne). Then, in -1066, Harold dies in battle at Hastings, and William begins our Norman -dynasty, Northmen being succeeded by Normans. - -Traces of the visits to Kent are found in various place-names, though -more common in other parts of Britain, and indeed in other countries, -since as marauders, colonists, or conquerors they were for three -centuries the terror of Europe, from Iceland to Italy. The many places -with the suffixes byr or by, thorpe, throp, or trop, toft, thwaite, -ville in Normandy, or well and will in England, garth, beck, haugh, -with, tarn, dale, force, fell, are all almost exclusively northern to -Kent and mainly Norwegian. As to “by” for town, there are 600 north of -the Thames and east of Watling Street, and hardly any in the south. The -one apparent exception in Kent—Horton Kirkby—is no exception, for it was -simply Horton until the time of Edward the First, when Roger de Kirkby, -_from Lancashire_, married a Kentish heiress and the manor and place -were re-named after him. - -We have, however, certain records of their piratical visits, as at -Deptford and Fordwich, where the termination is not the Anglo-Saxon -ford, meaning a passage across a river, but the Norse fiord, a roadstead -for ships. Deptford is the deep fiord, where ships could anchor close to -the bank, and Fordwich, the smallest “limb” of the Cinque Ports, was -once the port of Canterbury on the Stour, and gives us wic, the Norse -for station for ships, a small creek or bay. So, in Kent, we have also -from the same source Wick in Romney Marsh, Greenwich, Woolwich, and -Sandwich. Inland, however, Wich or Wick, is an Anglo-Saxon borrowing -from the Latin vicus, and means houses or a village. - -Another Norse word in Kent is Ness or Naze, a nose or promontory, such -as Dungeness, Shoeburyness, Pepperness, Foulness, Shellness, Sheerness, -Sharpness Cliff at Dover, whence criminals were hurled, Whiteness, -Foreness, Bartlett Ness and Oakham Ness. The Nore, in Kent, is the -Norse, or perhaps Jutish, Nôr, a bay with a narrow entrance, and the -word is unique in Britain, unless we may find it also in Normarsh, near -Rainham. Again attributable to our invaders, and again purely coastal, -are the places ending in _fliot_, a small river or creek, such as -Northfleet, Southfleet, Ebbsfleet, with Purfleet on the opposite bank of -the Thames. Thanet and Sheppey were for us their chief points of attack -and their naval stations, while the Danelagh or Kingdom whence the Norse -element predominated had the Wash as the chief entrance whence they -radiated out. - -The suffix “gate” may be either from the Saxon geat or the Scandinavian -gata, but when we find Ramsgate, Dargate, Margate, Westgate, Kingsgate, -Snargate, and Sandgate, all on the coast, while in Romney Marsh “gut” -takes the place of “gate,” as in Jervis Kut, Clobesden Gut, and Denge -Marsh Gut, we may incline to a Scandinavian origin. - -It is in the north, and the north only according to the best -authorities, that the suffix ing represents the Norse _eng_ for -grass-land. - - - - - The Islands of Kent. - - -Most islands are attached portions of the nearest mainland, severed in -prehistoric times by subsidence of the intervening soil and the action -of strong currents. Thus even England is a portion of the Continent, as -its fauna and flora proclaim, while Ireland was severed earlier still. -Thus also the Isle of Wight is Hampshire. So our Kentish islands, now -only two and neither now to be effectually circumnavigated, are -practically absorbed in the mainland. “Sheppey, Thanet—what else?” most -would say. Yet the early geographer Nennius, writing in the eighth -century, has the following quaint passage:—“The first marvel is the -Lommon Marsh” (_i.e._, Limen, now Romney), “for in it are 340 islands -with men and women living on them. It is girt by 340 rocks, and in every -rock is an eagle’s nest, and 340 rivers run into it, and there goes out -of it into the sea but one river, which is called the Lemn.” Truly a -picturesque account of the numerous spots, where dry land first appeared -in the shallow bay, and the countless sluices which intersected them. - - -“Romney” is probably formed by the addition of the Saxon Ige, By, or -Ea—island, to the earlier Celtic Ruim—marsh, and so gives an idea of -what the district was before the Romans reclaimed much by building their -great Rhee Wall. Certain names in Romney Marsh preserved the same -history. Oxeney (still we have the Island and the Hundred of Oxney, -containing Wittersham and Stone parishes) is even now insulated by two -branches of the Rother, and here, in the ancient and now diverted -channel, was found in 1824 an oaken ship buried deep in sand and mud. -Its name is said to mean the isle of the fat beeves. On pagan altars -discovered there oxen were carved, and still it is a great -cattle-raising district. We should look now in vain for the three -ferries by which it was once entered. In its centre is Ebony, no doubt -originally a sort of island, once called “Ebeney in Oxney,” and in an -early document it appears as Hibbene. It has been suggested that the -first part of the word is the old Celtic Avon, _i.e._, water or river, -and I find that a Saxon charter of 793 A.D. calls the Gloucester Avon by -the name of Aben. The third syllable is, of course, the Saxon word for -island. Scotney Court, Lydd, and Scotney Castle, Lamberhurst, no doubt -preserve the name of the Barons de Scotini, who came from Scotigny in -North France, and possessed, in the 12th century, much land, which they -held until the reign of Edward the Third, while Scot’s Hall, near -Smeeth, was the seat of Knights of that name down to the time of the -Armada. But for this history one might have classed Scotney with Oxney -and Ebony. - - -Coming now to Sheppey, still an island, washed on the north by the -estuary of the Thames, on the west by that of the Medway, and insulated -by the Swale (Saxon Suala), crossed by a railway bridge and two ferries, -the Celtic name is said to have been Malata, from Mohlt, a sheep, which -the Saxon conquerors translated into Sceap-ige, Sheep Isle. It includes -Elmley and Harty, once its little islands, and now peninsulas. An old -name for Harty was Hertai, in which we may perhaps find the Saxon -Heorat—stag, hart—as in Hartlip and Hartbourne, and ea—island. And -Elmley, which island would simply denote the ley or glade in the forest -in which elms were frequent, might here be Elm-isle. And another islet -was Graven-ea, the grain island, on the opposite side of the Swale, now -in the Faversham marshes. - - -Thanet, the best known and most important island, was in the 5th century -separated from the mainland by the Wantsum and the estuary of the Stour, -which gave an expanse of water mainly two miles broad, so that vessels -from or to London sailed from Reculver to Richborough, and avoided the -longer and rougher route round the North Foreland. To guard this sea-way -the Romans had placed their forts of Regulbium (Reculver) and Rutupia -(Richborough) at its northern and eastern entrance. Now, and for long, -by the dwindling of the Stour and the practical extinction of the -Wantsum, Thanet is but in name an island. Even writing in 1570, Lambarde -calls it a peninsula. It is said that its Celtic name was Rimn—a -headland, and that its later Saxon name, Tenet, means a beacon. Solinus, -who wrote about A.D. 80, calls it Ad-Tanatos (Thanatos, Greek for Death, -because its soil killed snakes even when exported for that purpose!). -Nennius, in the 8th century, says Guorthigern handed to Hengist and -Horsa the island, “which in their language is called Tenet, but in -British speech Ruoihm,” or Ru-oichim. In a charter of 679 it appears as -Tenid. The name, says McClure, may involve the Celtic Tann for oaks, as -in Glastenec, an early form of Glastonbury, surviving in the English, -Tanner, Tanyard, etc. From this root is derived the Breton place-name -Tannouet. Tenid is its oldest Saxon form, and the _Saxon Chronicle_ -records that in 969 Eadgar ordered Tenetland to be pillaged. - - - - - Variations in the Spelling of Place-Names. - - -In the search for the meaning of a place-name it is necessary to go back -as far as possible and discover, if we can, its earliest form. The -_Anglo Saxon Chronicle_, and the later Domesday Book of 1086; the -gradual blending of Saxon and Norman into the English tongue; and then -the invention of printing; all may have had an effect on the -pronunciation, and so the spelling, of a word. Also there is the -tendency to shorten a long word, as when Pepingeberia becomes Pembury, -or Godwinston, through Gusseton, becomes Guston. And before the -standardization of spelling which printing to a great extent effected, -and in written documents such as charters or wills, the most remarkable -variations will occur according to personal varieties of pronunciation. -Even now, though every one reads “I am going,” in one county you may -hear “I’m a gowin’,” in another “I be gooin’,” in another “I be gwaine,” -and so forth, and so one wonders less at the various forms in which a -name appears in writing in Saxon, in Norman, or in Early English days. - -As a general rule the earliest form will be best and most likely to -indicate why a name was given. To illustrate this source, both of -information and of error, let me take two Kentish -place-names—Westenhanger and Tenterden—giving the dates at which I find -the various forms. - - -Westenhanger.—There is a Teutonic stem hanh which means to hang, with -the Anglo-Saxon later forms, Hôn, Hêng, from which we get our place -names of hanger, Ongar, etc. A hanger is a wood or copse hanging on the -side of a hill, and in Kent we find Betteshanger, Hangherst, and -Ackhanger, as well as Westenhanger, concerning which Leland in his -Itinerary writes of “Ostinhaungre ... of sum now corruptly called -Westenanger.” I find it spelled Ostrynghangre in 1274 and 1291, -Westynghangre in 1343, Westingangre in 1346, Ostrynhangre in 1376 and -1381, Estynghangre in 1383, Westynganger in 1385, Ostynhangre in 1409, -Ostrynghanger in 1468, Westinganger in 1472, Ostrynhanger in 1478, -Westynghanger in 1511, Westhanger in 1519, and Oystenhanger in 1541. The -changes of the first syllable illustrate the continuance of the Saxon -Wœst and the Norman Ouest until there is the reversion to the Saxon form -in our West. - - -Tenterden, again, has a long list of variants. Probably its Saxon name -indicated the place where the Theinwarden, or Thane’s Warden or -Guardian, looked after the rights and dues of various other dens where -his swine had pannage and his tenants tended them. It is not mentioned -in Domesday, as not of sufficient importance or taxability; but in 1190 -I find it as Tentwarden, in 1252 as Thendwardenne and Tentwardenn, in -1255 as Tentwardene—this early and probably original form cropping up at -intervals for another three hundred years. But in 1259 we get nearer to -the extant form, as Tendyrdenn. In 1300 there is Tenterdenne, and in -1311 Tentredenne. From this point I take the spellings from the -Archbishop’s register of the institutions of its parish priests, and -here the earliest record is Tenterdenne in 1311. Thenceforward -Tent’denne and Tant’denn in 1322, Tentrdenn in 1327, Tenterdenne in -1333, Tentwardene in 1342, Tenterdenne in 1346, Tentwardyn in 1390, -Tynterden in 1394, Tent’den in 1404, Tenterden (for the first time -exactly in its present form) in 1407, Tendirden in 1436, Tentwarden at -various dates from 1464 to 1531, Tentreden in 1501 and 1525, Tenterden -in 1511, 1523, 1539, and 1546, “Tentwarden alias Tenterden” in 1541, -Tynterden in 1546, Tenterden in 1556, Tentwarden in 1560, Tenterden in -1571 and 1615, Tentarden in 1619, Tendarden in 1626, Tentarden in 1627 -and 1636. Henceforth it is always Tenterden in the Lambeth Registers. -These variations are the more noticeable as all occurring in one office, -where one would have expected a settled and continuously adopted form, -whereas in such documents as wills the testator, or even the scrivener -who wrote the will, would have only the current or the personal idea as -to the right spelling of a name. - - -Elsewhere I have given variations of the places we now know as -Edenbridge, Cuxton, Shepherdswell, Bethersden, Eastry, Throwley, etc. -One might add the cases of Freondesbyry (Saxon), Frandesberie -(Domesday), Frenesbery, and Frendesbury, for our Frindsbury; of -Estbarbrenge, Barmyage, Barmling, Barmelinge, and Berblinge, for our -Barming; Æpledure (Saxon), Apeldres (Domesday), Apoldre (1381), Apeltre, -Appledrau, and Appuldre, for our Appledore; of Pœdlewrtha (Saxon), -Pellesorde (Domesday), and Pallesford, for our three Paddlesworths; -Hertlepeshille (temp. Edw. II.), Herclepe, Hertelepe, and Harclypp -(1534), for our Hartlip; and Ok’olte (_i.e._, Oak Wood), Ocholte, -Sud-Acholt, Scottesocholt, and Nokeholde, for our Knockholt. The -etymological advantage of going back is seen in the case of Ringwould, -which becomes more intelligible when down to the time of Henry 3rd it -was known as Ridelinwalde or Rydelynewelde (_i.e._, the settlement of -the clan of Ryddeling by the wood), whereas not till 1476 do I find -Ringeweld, and Ringewold in 1502. - - - - - Ecclesiastical Place-Names. - - -There are not so many as one would expect considering the importance and -power and the possessions of the Church in Kent. Taking some as they -occur to me, there are All Hallows, in Sheppey, so named from the -dedication of its church to All Saints’. The Latin Sanctus and the -Teutonic Helige are the same in meaning. So we have, too, in Lower -Halstow the Saxon helige stow—the holy place. In a list of Jack Cade’s -Kentish followers, in 1450, the parish of Omi Scor is mentioned, which -puzzled me for a moment until I saw it was a contraction for Omnium -Sanctorum, All Saints’. - - -The two Minsters, one in Thanet and one in Sheppey, both of Saxon -foundation, are the Latin Monasterium, found later as Moynstre and then -as Menstre. Monkton, earlier Moncstun and Monkynton, marks a manor given -A.D. 961 by Queen Eadgiva to the monks of the community of Holy Trinity, -which afterwards became the greater Christ Church, Canterbury. There are -also, for the same reasons, Monks Horton and Monks Hill, by Herne Hill, -in Blean. Bishopsbourne, earlier Bishopstone, and Bishopsdenne, denotes -an episcopal manor. The old nucleus of Lydd was Bishopswic, and in -Domesday Boughton Malherbe appears as Boltone Archiepiscopi. Preston, -near Wingham (there is another by Aylesford, and a third near Faversham) -is Priest’s Town, and denotes a place where there was a small college of -clergy. That near Wingham is recorded in Domesday as Prestetune, and in -a fine of Edward II. we have: “Preston next Wengham and Wykham -Brewouse.” It belonged to S. Augustine’s Abbey at Canterbury. S. -Nicholas at Wade is named from the dedication of the ancient church. At -Wade represents the Latin Ad Vadum, at the ford, over the Wantsum, into -Thanet, near the existing-bridge at Sarre. - - -S. Margaret’s Bay and S. Margaret’s at Cliffe retain their Norman -dedications. The church originally belonged to S. Martin’s Priory at -Dover. Lillechurch House, near Higham, marks the site of the old Priory -of Higham. The Hundred of Lesnes (A.S. leswes, pastures) is the district -once attached to the Augustinian Abbey (whence the present name of Abbey -Wood) founded in 1178 by the Chief Justice and Regent Richard de Lucy. - - -Of the five parishes named from the river Cray two are named from the -patron saints of their churches. S. Mary Cray is, however, called -Sentlynge in Domesday Book. S. Paul’s Cray is a misnomer, since the -dedication is to S. Paulinus, Bishop of Rochester, and afterwards -Archbishop of York. So in a deed of 1291 I find it as Creypaulin, and in -a fine of Edward II., 1314, as Paulynescraye. In 1560, however, it -appears as Powle’s Crey. - - -Brenzett, in Romney Marsh, does not suggest in its present form either a -Celtic or a Saxon origin; but as its old church was dedicated to S. -Eanswith, a popular Saxon Saint, also commemorated in the S. Mary and S. -Eanswith of the original church at Folkestone, it has been suggested -that Brenzett has been evolved in process of time out of Eanswith. -Bresett and Brynsete (1416) are variants of the place-name. There is -also the parish of S. Mary in the Marsh hard by. Newchurch, also in the -Marsh, is Neucerce in Domesday (1036), but as there is no Norman work in -the church, which is of Early English architecture, it is supposed that -shortly before Domesday an older church had been pulled down. Then and -still it gives its name to the Hundred of Newchurch in the Lathe of -Limea or Limowart, which was re-named Shepway in the time of Henry the -Third. Also in the Marsh is Dymchurch, earlier Demchurche. But earlier -still it is said to have been called simply Dimhus or Dimhof, which -would mean in Saxon the dark or hiding place; so that “church” may be a -later addition to an old name. Eastchurch, in Sheppey, was, and is, the -easternmost church in the island. - - - - - Place-Names from Persons. - - -We have seen how common in Kent are place-names derived from patronymics -of the name of a family or clan, such as Kennington, the settlement of -the Cennings, but there are others, mainly more modern, which include -the name of an individual, who usually would be the lord of the manor. -Thus some have imagined that Swingfield, near Dover, is Sweyn’s Field, -as if the Saxons would have named a place after their piratical enemy. -The older forms, Swonesfelde and Swynefelde, would more naturally point -to swine, the keeping of which was the chief pastoral pursuit of the -Saxons in the dens and clearings of the forest. Queenborough, or -Quinborowe, however (earlier known as Bynnee), was named by Edward the -Third (who built a strong fort there) in honour of Queen Philippa in -1368. Rosherville is very recent, being named after Jeremiah Rosher, -lord of the manor in the nineteenth century. Sutton Valence was Town -Sutton until 1265, when it became part of the possessions of William de -Valence, half-brother of Henry the Third. - - -Boughton Aluph—Bocton Anulphi in a charter of Edward the Second—was the -seat in the time of Henry the Seventh of the family of Aloff, to which -Wye belonged. Boughton Monchelsea (Bocton Chanesy in the time of Edward -the Second) owes its additional name to a Norman noble; and Boughton -Malherbe (another Bush-ton, or town in the woods) was given as a manor -to the Norman family of Malherbe. Bethersden can be traced back to -Norman times as Beatrichesdenne, probably as held by an heiress of that -name. So Patrixbourne appears earliest as Bourne until a Patrick held -the manor. Capel le Ferne, near Dover, was originally Mauregge; but in -1175 the Capel family owned Capel’s Court in Ivychurch, and had estates -in several parts of Kent. In the fifteenth century it was called -sometimes S. Mary Marige and sometimes Capelle le farne, and in a deed -of 1511 it appears as “Capelferne or S. Mary Merge.” - - -Shepherdswell, near Dover, has nothing to do with a shepherd or a well; -but is an early corruption of Sibertswalt, as it appears in Domesday, -_i.e._, the wood of Sibert. The phonetic changes are found in later -charters and wills, Sybersysweld in 1474, Sybberdiswold 1484, -Shipriswold 1501, Shepswold 1506, and Sheperterswold in 1522. Suabert, -or Sieberht, was a great Saxon thane, and granted land in Sturgeth -(Sturry) and Bodesham to St. Domneva’s new Minster in Thanet, while in a -charter of 814 we read of Selebertineg-lond. Great Chart was originally -Selebert’s Chart. Sibbertston (or Selebertston) was a sub-manor in -Chilham, and there is still the Hundred of Sebrittenden or Selebertsden -in what was the old Lathe of Wye. - - -Mongeham is probably Monyn’s Home, for the Monins family have been there -or near there since the time of Henry the Third, and are there still. -Goodneston, commonly called Guston, was no doubt Godwinston, as in the -territory of the great Earl Godwin, and we trace its present name -through the earlier forms Gounceston, Goceston, Gusseton, to Guston. -Another Goodnestone, near Faversham, appears as Gudewynston in 1469 and -Goodwinston in 1529. The Breux, of Wickham Breux, is another Norman -addition to a Saxon name. - - -Ebbsfleet, the so important landing place, first of Hengist and then of -S. Augustine, has, of course, been explained by ignorant guessers as the -place where the sea ebbs! But its earliest name to be traced is Ypwine’s -fliot, _i.e._, the creek where some Jute of that name settled. Yp is -probably the Eop in Eoppa, which is a common Saxon name, also found as -Eobba, so that Eobbe’s fleet easily becomes Ebbsfleet. Upper Hardres may -take us to the Norman family which came from Ardres in Picardy, although -it is possible to find a common Celtic origin for the name both of the -French and the English village in the Celtic Ardd, that is, ploughland. -It is Heg Hardres, _i.e._, High Hardies, in early documents. - - -Horton Kirby was simply Horton until the reign of Edward III., when a -Lancashire Kirby married the heiress of the manor and rebuilt the -castle. Even in 1377 I find it still called Hortune only. Offham is -Offa’s home, and several places, including probably Otham, bear his -name. Here this Christian King of Mercia is said to have conquered -Edmund of Kent. So Old Romney was earlier Offeton, Effeton, or Affeton. -Offa ruled Sussex and Kent, and so we have Offham near Lewes, Offington -near Worthing, Offham near Arundel, and Ufton near Tunstall. But the -name of Offeton for Old Romney disappears after 1281. Foot’s Cray, and -Footbury Hill near there, is named from Godwin Fot the Saxon. Chelsfield -is said to record the name of a Saxon Ceol, a shortened form of -Ceolmund, or Ceolbald, or Ceolwulf, all of which were common names. -Scotney Castle, Lamberhurst, belonged in the 12th century to the Barons -de Scoterni, who came from Pontigny, in N. France. They had also Scotney -Court, at Lydd. - - -One may add to these samples of places named from persons, two or three -that very probably take us back to mythical personages. Woodnesborough -(Wodenesbergh 1465, Wynsbergh 1496), was named by the Jutish conquerors -after their god Woden, whom they commemorated among the Teutonic names -they bequeathed to our names of the week. There is another -Woodnesborough in Wilts, and Wednesbury and Wednesfield in -Staffordshire. And we note that the next parish is Eastry. For the name -of this very old and important place in Saxon time various derivations -have been proposed, but it is more than possible that it is the town of -Eástor or Eostre, the goddess of Spring, whose name survived when the -conversion of the heathen Saxons gave a new light to the festival in the -Spring, which henceforth was to celebrate a greater Resurrection than -that merely of the flowers. And possibly a third instance may be found -in the name of Aylesford, which is Egelesford in the _Saxon Chronicle_, -and Elesford in Domesday. Amongst various possible derivations that of -Eigil, the Teutonic hero-archer or demigod, is worthy of consideration, -since it is found as naming places elsewhere; for example, Aylesbury, in -Buckinghamshire, which in the _Saxon Chronicle_ appears as Ægelesburh. - - - - - Absurdities in Derivation. - - -When a language is not pure, but the result of the intermingling and -interaction of several tongues as distinct as Celtic, Saxon and Norman; -and when, by the wear and tear of daily use through centuries, -place-names have altered in detail of spelling and pronunciation; and -when for a long time spelling and reading were arts known but to a small -minority of the population, it is plainly inevitable that the original -form and real meaning of a place-name should often be difficult to -trace. But always in an enquiring mind there was the insistent WHY? -which is a characteristic and a glory of man as a reasoning animal, and -hence often a meaning was given to a word that is simply a sort of pun, -an endeavour to explain a word by what it looks like in current speech -or dialect when there was not the knowledge of earlier times and older -tongues which elevates mere guessing into the science of etymology. - -Some Kentish examples of this source of error may be useful. Thus, when -we trace Maidstone back into the earliest records we find that it has -nothing to do with either Maid or Stone, but comes through many -variations from the Celto-Saxon Medwegston, or town on the Medway. Yet -though Lambard knew and quoted this in 1570 he suggested also a meaning -of “mighty stone, a name given for the quarry of hard stone there!” So, -too, Hasted thinks Loose is so called because the stream loses itself -underground (like the Mole in Surrey) for some eight hundred yards at -Brishing! He might as well have ascribed the name to Loose and Detling -having been long only Chapelries of Maidstone, but at last having been -cut loose and made into separate parishes in Elizabethan times! - -Tenterden is named, says an old Kentish writer, as “some vulgar fancies -conjecture, from the tenderness of its soil”; Feversham, says another -old Kentish writer, Phillipott, useful as an historian, useless to -etymologists, “is an unhealthy town, and carries the tokens of it in its -name.” _Id. est._, the home of fevers! Harbledown, says Black, is -so-called “in allusion to its grassy downs and hills,” as if grassiness -were not a characteristic of any and every down and hill in Kent. -Gadshill, we are solemnly told, is named from “gads,” clubs used by -footpads who were not unknown there (or anywhere else) on Watling -Street. We should smile less if the name was Padshill. - -And one of the most ancient, and indeed prehistoric, names in Kent is -Penypot, a hill opposite Chilham. “Here once,” one old rustic would say, -“they dug up a pot full of pennies.” “Nay,” another would respond, “it -was where they used to sell ale for a penny a pot in the good old days!” -To such vile meanings may descend the venerable Celtic Pen y wlh—the -Head of the Mound. - -One of the earliest Roman geographers heard of Thanet under its earliest -name of Tanet, and because he knew a Greek word Thanatos, which means -death, he so interpreted Thanet. On this absurdity he based a baseless -legend which Lambarde in 1570 thus describes: “There be no snakes in -Tanet (saith he), and the earth that is brought from thence will kill -them.” (Why death to snakes any more than to sheep or shepherds? Why not -go further and make Thanatos a lifeless place like the Dead Sea?) “But -whether he wrote this of any sure understanding that he had of the -quality of the soil, or only by conjecture at the woord Thanatos, which -in Greeke signifieth death, I wote not.” This is as strong an example of -conjectural derivation, with nothing but a superficial resemblance to -support it, as we could find. But Lambarde himself, great as he is in -many ways, gives derivations almost as baseless, _e.g._, Blackheath, -“called of the colour of the soil!” Wrotham, “given for the great -plentie of woorts or good hearbs that growe there.” Farley, “interpreted -the place of the Boares, or Bulles” (which? and why?). Sittingbourne, -“one interprets it Seethingbourne, Rivus Fervens aut Hulliens” (_i.e._, -the boiling or bubbling river—in that flat country!). This is too much -even for him and his times, and so he adds, “but how likely let others -see.” - - - - - Our “Tons” and “Stones.” - - -As given in _Kelly’s Kent Directory_, our Tons and Stones are: -Addington, Aldington, Allington, Barfreston, Bedmonton, Bilsington, -Birchington, Blackmanstone, Bonnington (two), Bossington, Boughton -(four), Brompton, Charlton (two), Cheriton, Chiddingstone, Chilmington, -Chilton, Cliftonville, Cossington, Cozenton, Crofton, Culverstone, -Cuxton, Davington, Denton (two), Doddington, Dumpton, Dunton Green, -Eddington, Ellington, Egerton, Eggerton, Elmstone, Elvington, -Folkestone, Foston Green, Funton, Garrington, Goldstone, Goodnestone -(two), Guston, Hackington, Hampton (two), Hamptons, Holmstone Camp, -Horton (two), Horton Kirby, Hunton, Kenardington, Kennington, Keston, -Kingston or Kingstone, Kippington, Knowlton, Langton Green, Linton, -Littlestone, Liverton Street, Loddington, Lullingstone, Lowton, Luton, -Maidstone, Manston, Milton (two), Milton Regis, Milton Street, Monks -Horton, Monkton, Murston, Nackington, Newington (three), Nonington, -Horton, Orlestone, Orpington, Pevington, Plumpton, Poulton, Preston -(two), Ripton, Salmestone, Scuddington, Seaton, Sevington, Sibton, Stone -(four), Stonebridge (two), Stonebridge Green, Stone Cross (three), Stone -Crouch, Stone Hill, Stone House, Stone Stairs, Stone Street, Stonehill -(two), Sutton (three), Swanton Street, Tankerton, Teston, Thanington, -Tilmanstone, Tottington, Twitton, Ufton, Upton, Wanstone, Weddington, -Wierton Street, Wilderton, Willington Street, Wilmington, Wootton -(three)—147 in all. One may add, for purposes of investigation, Stone, -an old borough in Maidstone. - -First, one must endeavour to separate the tons and the stones—the Saxon -settlements or towns and the places named from stones set for boundaries -or for marks where manor courts or motes were held. And this is not -always easy, since mediæval spelling was vague, and in some cases an -original “stone” has become “ton” in later years, or _vice versa_. -Generally, a reference to the earliest forms (where such can be found in -Saxon or Norman, or even Early English documents) will settle the point. -Thus Folkestone is by some identified with the site of the “stone of -inscription on the Gallic sea,” mentioned by Nennius, the Saxon -geographer. It is Folcesstane in the _Saxon Chronicle_, and Falchestan -in Domesday, and therefore no explanation involving ton need be -entertained. Keston, again, is Cystaninga, hence in Saxon charters -between 862 and 966, as being or having a boundary mark stone. It is -Chestan in Domesday. But Chiddingstone should probably lose its final e -and derive from a Saxon patronymic, although a modern and grotesque -suggestion is that the dolmen there was used as a Chiding or judgment -stone by Celtic or Saxon priests. Maidstone, again, should probably be -Maidston, being Medwegston in the _Saxon Chronicle_, and almost -certainly meaning the town on the Medway; although it is fair to say -that an ending in stane is early found. Tilmanstone was earlier -Telmeston, and Elmstone was Elmerston, and the earlier spellings of -Goodnestone are Goodwinston, Gudewynston, and Goodneston. - -Stones are much fewer than “tons,” although no doubt the number of such -marks (origin of our milestones) was increased by the Romans. Thus the -place Stone, two miles west of Faversham and on their great main road -Watling Street, is thought to mark the site of their military station of -Durolevo, and thus to be named from the distance mark. We must also note -that stone bridges were practically unknown to the Saxons, except those -the Romans had left, and Stone Cross would not appear as a place-name -until after their conversion, while a stone house, except as the castle -of a Norman noble, would be of quite late date. - -As to the Tons, some are named from geographical position, such as -Norton (Northtown), near Faversham, and the Suttons (South-town), on the -edge of the Weald or south of Dartford; and, whatever may be the case -with others, the Milton near Sittingbourne is called Middeltuna in the -_Saxon Chronicle_ and in Domesday, since it was reckoned the central -town of Kent when Watling Street was far the greatest and most -frequented route to be considered, being 42 miles from London and 31 -from Dover. Our various Boughtons are “settlements in the wood,” as are -also the Woottons. Monkton and the Prestons were settlements of monks -and of colleges of priests. - -The great majority, however, denote the settlement of some Saxon (_i.e._ -Jutish) family, such as Seafings or Sevingas at Sevington, the Ælings at -Allington, the Noningas at Nonington, the Cennings at Kennington, and so -forth. We find this Saxon patronymic “ing” in 37 of our Kentish place -names ending in ton, and when we add the ings like Barming (Bamling, -Barmelinge, and Berblinge in Early English documents), Beltring, -Bilting, Birling, Bobbing (Bobing-seata in a Saxon charter of -798—compare Bobbingsworth in Essex), Bramling. Bazing (at the junction -of Kent, Sussex and Surrey), reminds us of Basing and Basingstoke in -Hants and Basingham (in Domesday Book) in Sussex. Charing, Chevening -(although this may be earlier and Celtic), Cooling, Detling, perhaps -Drelingore, Eastling, Etching, Garlinge, Geddinge, Hacklinge, Hailing, -Hawkinge, Hucking, Kemsing, Lidsing (not Lyminge, however), Mailing, -Nullinge, Ospringe, Ottinge, Pedlinge, Postling, Ratling, Rawling, -Reading Street (three), Rowling, Ruckinge, Sandling (two), Selling, -Sellinge, Shelving, Spratling Street, Stelling, Stowting, Weavering -Street, Welling, Witchling, and Yalding; and when to these we add the -“inghams” I have given in a previous article, we might alter Tennyson’s -“Saxon, and Norman, and Dane are we,” into “Mostly Saxon are we as to -our place-names in Kent.” Our two Charltons are of old Ceorletone—the -town of the ceorls or husbandmen. Some “tons” come from personal names -also, _e.g._, Cuxton (compare Cuckfield in Sussex), Cuca and its -diminutive Cucola are found as Anglo-Saxon names, and as Cockstane the -place appears in Domesday, and as Cokelstone in 1472, nearly 400 years -later, with other forms Cockston, Coklestane, Cukelestane, Cookstone, -etc. (all pointing to stone, and not ton, being properly the final -syllable). - -There is, however, obviously much to be done before we can know—or even -in some cases guess—as to the origin of some “tons” or “stones.” - - - Our “Hams.” - -In considering the three score and ten, or more, place-names in Kent -which end in _ham_, we are met with the initial difficulty that there -are two Saxon words Ham—home, and Hamm—land drained by dykes, an East -Friesian word, though the far more common Ham is the Teutonic heim, -familiar as a suffix in Germany, which in Picardy becomes hen, and in -Friesland um. Either ton or ham as a suffix after _ing_ denotes where a -Saxon family or clan had settled and made its toun or heim. Thus the -Pæfings made a Pevington in Kent and a Pavingham in Bedfordshire, and -the Aldings an Aldington in Kent and Worcester, and an Aldingham in -Lancashire, the Leasings a Lossingham in Kent and a Lissington in -Lancashire. Such instances do not uphold what some have held—that there -were two words spelled the same, the one meaning home and the other an -enclosure. - -As to the Hamm or Haam for marshy ground, it would seem to be found in -Kent as accounting for Ham Ponds, near Sandwich, marshy ground dear to -botanists, and Mersham (A.S. Mersc—marsh) in Romney, and Merston -(Merxton in 74), near Rochester. Ham Green and Ham Street are also -Romney Marsh names. Waterham and Wetham would suggest the same origin, -the latter being in the Rainham marshes and the former, I think, not far -from the Faversham marshes. Dagenham also (as elsewhere) is Decca’s -marsh land. But the ordinary hams, as we may call them, have again to be -subdivided into those which indicate the settlement of a Saxon family; -those which enshrine a personal name; and those which relate to the -environment or situation of the home. - -In the first division would came the cases in which ham followed the -patronymic ing, denoting “the sons of.” Thus Gillingham (Gelingham in -Domesday) was the settlement of the Gillings, who are also found at -Gilling in Yorkshire, Gillingham in Norfolk, and Gillingham in Dorset. -The home of the Mottings was at Mottingham, and that of the Leasings at -Lossenham. Our Chilham would not at first sight seem to come in here; -but in a charter of King Wihdraed in 699 it is called “Cilling,” and in -another of 814 “the port which is called Cillincg” (the Stour was then -navigable up to here for small craft), and a manor in Chilham is -Shillingfield, so that a connection with the Gillings may be suggested. -Farningham might seem _prima facie_ to add another to this unexpectedly -small class; but there is no known tribe of Farnings, and the old name -was Fremyngham (again with no tribe name to support it). It has been -suggested that it derives from the A.S. Frem or foreign, and denotes a -settlement of foreigners (possibly Danes) coming from the Thames up the -Darenth valley. - -In the second division we might place any hams recording the personal -names of those who founded them. Here Isaac Taylor may err in saying: -“In the Anglo-Saxon charters we frequently find this suffix united with -the names of families—never with those of individuals.” In this he -follows Leo in his _Anglo Saxon Names_. And yet on another page (compare -p. 331 with p. 131) he gives a list of places derived from the names of -individuals. But certainly Godmersham and Rodmersham suggest personal -names, and no one has ascribed any other origin to Harrietsham, which, -even down to the fifteenth century, appears as Heryotesham. In one -probably illiterate will of 1594 it is called “Henry Etisham alias -Harrysam,” the latter being no doubt the vernacular pronunciation. So -surely Meopham is Mepa’s Home. No letter o appeared in the name before -or during the 14th century, when Simon de Mepham was Archbishop of -Canterbury. It is a modern intrusion, left unpronounced. Icelham, -McClure gives as meaning the Home of Icel, like Icelsham in Sussex, thus -contravening the dictum of Taylor and Leo as to personal names. So -Offham, and probably Otham, is said by the learned _Sussex Place-Names_ -to be named after King Offa, who had such power and made such great -benefactions to the Church in Sussex and Kent. Finglesham, called -Flenguessa in Domesday and Fengesham in 1206, suggests a person rather -than a family when the common ing is not then found in the name, and so -does Wittersham, especially in its old forms of Westricheshamme and -Witrychesham. Faversham was Febres-ham in 811 (Charters and Rolls), and -Febresham in 858. In Domesday (1086) it appears as Faversham, and as to -this McClure, a great recent authority in Saxon, says: “The first -element is a personal name in the genitive.” As, however, there seems to -be no similar Saxon designation, he suggests a possible survival of the -Latin Faber, _i.e._, Smith, in a thoroughly Latinized part of Kent. But -this pre-supposes that the place was named from a single unnamed -operative. Betsham is obscure, but when we find, also in Kent, Betshurst -and Betteshanger, a personal origin seems likely. As McClure says, our -Luddesdown seems to involve a personal name; he might say the same of -Luddenham. - -The third division introduces us to settlements or homes named from -their environment or situation. Thus Higham (Heahhaam in a charter of -770, and Hehham in one of 774), is plainly from the A.S. Heah, whence -our High; and so is Hougham (earlier Hugham), near Dover. Burham is the -fortified place or Burh, found in 1498 as Borowham, in 1511 as -Borougham, and in 1549 in its present form. Homes between Rochester and -Aylesford had to be strong in the days and the place of constant -maraudings and wars. Mersham is the Mersc home in Romney Marsh. -Westerham, of old Ostreham (compare Westenhanger alias Ostringhanger) is -the little white “home in the west” of Kent. Ickham—Ioccham in a charter -of 785, in Andrededa—otherwise Yeckham, is probably the settlement on -the yoke of arable land, from the Saxon measure Yeok. Chartham (Certeham -in Domesday) is the home in the forest, chart and hart being varying -forms of the Teutonic word for forest, the former more common in -England, the latter in Germany. Perhamsted, says McClure, is the -homestead where pears were cultivated. Thornham (though Turnham in -Domesday) is said to derive from Hawthorns, Thynne being Saxon for -thorn, and haegathorn later for hedge-thorn—whence also probably our -Kentish Eythorne (anciently Hegythe Thorne), and Eyhorne (Haythorne in -Plea of Henry III.), as place-names. Weald, Wold, Wald, and Wood (A.S., -Wudu and Weald), all mean woods, so that we can understand our Wouldham -and Waltham. Lenham must be the settlement of the Len, unless it could -be proved that the river ever had another name, Celtic as it probably -is. - -The following is a full list of the “Hams” in Kent according to _Kelly’s -Directory of Kent_, and I have extracted them in the hope that it may -save some trouble to a future writer on our place-names. I am not of the -class of those who say: “Posterity has done nothing for me, so why -should I do anything for posterity?” - -Adisham, Alkham, Barham, Bagham, Beckenham, Burham, Bentham, Betsham, -Bayham, Cudham, Cobham, Clapham, Chatham, Chartham, Chilham, Crowdleham, -Crockham, Dagenham, Eltham, Elham, Fawkham, Faversham, Farningham, -Finglesham, Frogham, Godmersham, Gillingham, Ham ponds, Ham Green (two), -Ham Hill, Ham Street, Heverham, Ham, Harrietsham, Hougham, Higham, -Horsham, Ickham, Ightham, Lenham, Luddenham, Lossenham, Meopham, -Mersham, Mongeham, Mottingham, Newnham, Offham, Otham, Otterham, Petham, -Peckham, Rayham, Rainham, Rodmersham, Sydenham, Shoreham, Teynham, -Thornham, Waltham, Waterham, Wetham, Wickham, Wickhambreux, Westerham, -Wrotham, Wingham, Wittersham, Wouldham, Yaldham. Kilburne wrote that -there were 49, but here I enumerate 71, and one might add Perhamsted, -Iselham, Freckenham, Mistelham, and the Hundreds of Kinghamford and -Downhamford, making 77, all of undoubtedly Saxon origin. - - - Our “Soles,” “Burys,” and “Hithes.” - -The word Sole occurs frequently as a Kentish place-name, and is purely -Saxon. Dr. Bosworth’s _Anglo-Saxon Dictionary_ gives Sol as meaning -“soil—dirt—a wallowing place”; while Lewis defines it as “a dirty pond -of standing water.” The Saxon verb is Sylian, “to soil or cover with -mud.” So an old Kentish will has the words “beside the wateringe sole in -trend (_i.e._, the end) of Yckhame streete.” Now, as the chief -industries of the Saxons in Kent were pigs and pots—as now they are -bricks and beer—it is obvious that pigs, especially in clay soil, would -create many wallowing places. So we find Sole Street, near Broadstairs -(now corrupted into Sorvell and so made unmeaning and unintelligible), -another by Cobham, another by Crundale, and another by Selling. We find -also Bradsole (S. Radigund’s near Dover), Buttsole in Eastry, Blacksole -at Wrotham, Maidensole, Longsole Heath by Allington, Thewsole, and -Hangmansole in Romney Marsh, Eastsole, Newsole near Coldred, Esole near -Nonington, Podsole near Headcorn, a Mote-sole Street in Sandwich, -Mudshole by Hawkinge, Barnsole Lane, Gillingham, Capel Sole, Barnsole in -Staple, Westfield Sole in Boxley, Rigsol Road in Otterden, and last, but -not least, Paddisole, or Padsole, at Maidstone. - - - Our “Burys.” - -There are two Anglo-Saxon words which have to be distinguished—Beorh, -like the German Berg, meaning a hill; and Buruh or Byrig, which comes -later into the suffix Bury, which again later comes to be used for a -division of Hundred or simply for a town. In the south of England we -have most of the distinctively Saxon or Jutish Bury, while in the north -we have the Anglian and Norse forms of Burgh, Brough, Borough, more -common. And one must add, as a variant of the same word, Barrow, which -in modern use we confine to a tumulus for the sepulture of a great -warrior or leader. As these British camps were generally on high ground -for observation and for defence, the ideas represented by Beorh and by -Buruh would inevitably intertwine. The British and Saxon camps were no -doubt numerous when we consider the centuries of marauders and invaders -which kept our earliest forefathers in a constant fear. They were -usually round or oblong, whereas the fewer and later camps or forts of -the Romans were rectangular. Surrounded by a deep ditch, the earth of -which was thrown up to make a wall, into them in troublous times were -collected families and flocks, so that the transition of meaning from -the Byrig or fort to the Borough or town was easy. Canterbury, for -example, began as Cantwara-byrig, the fort of the folk of Kent, long -before it developed into its most important borough or city. So, in -another county, Glæstingaberig became Glastonbury. - -In Kent we find Farnborough, Frindsbury, Wateringbury, Hildenborough, -Pembury, Cobhambury, Southborough, Oldbury, Bigbury, Glassenbury, two -Hawkenburies, Holborough, Howbury, Scadbury, Goodbury, Eastbury, -Fallburie, Stockbury (where the ditch and bank had been supplemented by -a palisade of stocks, the predecessor of our fathers’ cheveaux de frise -in warlike defence), Binbury, Westborough (in Maidstone above and -defending the Medway), Woodnesbury, Willesborough, Queenborough, -Richborough, Bidborough, Marshborough, Statenborough, Tattlebury, -Downbury, Hockenbury, Dunbury and Tatlingbury—a long list which -predicates long years, or rather centuries, of fighting in defence, as -much as my previous list of forestal names proves how much of Kent was -covered with woods. - -Some of these, like Oldbury and Bigbury, are undoubtedly old British -camps or forts; others were adapted, or newly made, by Romans and, -later, by Saxons, while again later still a Norman castle might be -reared on the old strategic spot, as in the case of Thornham Castle, -near me. Flinders Petrie, however, says that “many sites which by their -name of bury suggest a camp or fort are now bare of remains.” So he -writes after examining Downbury Farm, near Pembury, Hockenbury, and -Dunbury, near Staplehurst, Tattlebury near Headcorn, Tatlingbury near -Capel, Perry Hill near Cooling, Pembury, Frindsbury and Wateringbury. - -Our Barrows in Kent are mainly small, graves rather than mounds, but we -have the place-names Barrow Green, Barrow Hill near Ashford, and Barrow -Hill by Sellindge. - - - Our “Hithes.” - -Hithe is the Saxon for haven, or place where ships could lie, and Hythe -(Heda in Domesday Book, and Hee in a deed of 1229) was near the edge of -the sea when history begins; but West Hythe, which is now three miles -from the sea, was the old port used by the Romans and by them called -Limene, the harbour. Hence our modern Lympne—Portus Lemanis, in which -the p is a modern addition. I find it Limene in 1291, Lymen in 1396, -Limne in 1475, and Lymne in 1480. - -Then, right in the Weald, is the hamlet of Smallhythe, three miles south -of Tenterden. Down to 1509, however, there was a channel from the sea up -to here. - -Newheth, or New Hythe, is a hamlet of East Malling—and it was a sort of -port (or perhaps a wharf) on the Medway for shipping goods from South -Kent and the Weald. - -On the Thames, below Dartford, is Greenhithe, which has kept both its -name and the justification thereof from the times of the Saxons to the -present day. There the Danish King had an entrenched camp as a winter -station for his soldiers. Here William the Conqueror was stopped by the -men of Kent until he confirmed them in their old Saxon laws and -privileges. From here Sir John Franklin and Captain Crozier sailed in -the Erebus and Terror (in the year and month of my birth) on their last -and fatal voyage to the Pole. Here still the hithe discharges its lime -and chalk, and has an environment and background of green fields and -woods. - -Ærrehythe, “the old haven,” known to us as Erith, the landing place for -what was from 1178, when it was founded, the important Abbey of Lesnes, -which still gives its name to the Hundred. - - - Our “Cold Harbours.” - -Perhaps the most common place-name in England is that of Cold Harbour; -though Sutton and Norton may run it close. Over one hundred and seventy -have been enumerated in England, a number which would be brought up to -over two hundred if we added the Caldecots and the Calcotts (we have a -Calcott in Sturry parish) which are names with the same meaning. And yet -in a sense Cold Harbour is not a place-name, for the only parish of that -name was not formed and named until 1842. It is near Dorking. However, -as a name of a manor or a farm it is common. Thus in London (where we -should hardly expect Cold Harbours of the kind found in country places) -there was the Manor of Coldherberghe, of which we know much since 1327. -Situated on the bank of the Thames near London Bridge, its mansion was -tenanted by royal dukes, a bishop, a Lord Mayor, and afterwards became -the Hall of the Watermen’s Company, and at last the City of London -Brewery. The other is in Camberwell, which was one great manor at the -time of the Conquest, but later divided into minor lordships, to two of -which the name of Cold Harbour was given, of which one was Cold -Herbergh, Hachesham (Hatcham now), while the other survives in the well -known Cold Harbour Lane, in Camberwell. In early 19th century maps Cold -Blow Farm was the representative of the old manor (Kent has a Cold Blow -in Bexley). A curious 15th century corruption was Coldabbeye, though -there was never an abbey there. The farm succumbed to suburban expansion -in the 19th century; but Harbour Road, Cold Harbour Lane, and Cold -Harbour Place, tell us of its site. - -The Cold Harbours in Kent are thirty in number, while ten are found in -each of the contiguous counties of Surrey and Sussex. They are found at -Addington, Aldington, Aylesford, Barham Downs, Bishopsbourne, Bridge, -Chislehurst, Deptford, Ditton, Eltham, Higham, Hildenborough, Eltham, -Lamberhurst, Lymne, Maidstone, Newington, Northfleet, Penshurst, -Sellinge, Sittingbourne, Stoke-in-Hoo, Sutton-at-Hone, Tenterden, -Trench, Tunbridge, Woodnesborough, Woolwich, Wrotham, and Wye. The -majority of these are upon or near Roman sites, or on the Roman main -roads, a fact to be borne in mind when we come to consider their origin. -For Isaac Taylor says of early travelling: “Where no religious house -existed to receive the traveller he would usually be compelled to -content himself with the shelter of bare walls. The ruins of deserted -Roman villas were no doubt so used, and such places seem commonly to -have borne the name of Cold Harbour. In the neighbourhood of ancient -roads we find no less than seventy, and about a dozen more bearing the -analogous name of Caldecot or ‘cold cot.’” His figures have now been -shown to be very much under the mark. So Forbes and Burmester, in their -_Our Roman Highways_, say: “The appearance of such names is believed to -be a sure indication of the use in comparatively modern times of Roman -buildings for purposes of temporary shelters; and the occasional -discovery of tessellated pavements injured by fires lighted in the -corners of rooms suggests their utilization by wayfarers.” - -Not that all would have been villas or private residences. The orderly -and practical Romans on their great military roads had a colonia at each -15 or 20 miles with a mansio or government posting station, and between -each, at about five miles distance, was a mutatio with less -accommodation, and used by a humbler class. The manager of each was -called a Strator—like our Way Warden. In many cases we find that the -Cold Harbours come exactly where we should look for the regularly set -mutatio. The same kind of arrangement is found in the Hans or Khans of -the East, which provide shelter for traveller and stabling for his horse -or other beast of burden; but no bed or food. Analogous also are the -dak-bungalows familiar to us in India. - -The name, however, is pure Saxon, like the German Kalt Herberg, and the -surviving French Auberge for a small place of rest and refreshment. Mr. -Unthank, a friend and church-worker of mine in Walworth, enlisted my -interest in the name a dozen years ago, and since he has written -learnedly on the subject in _Notes and Queries_ (1914) and the _Home -Counties Magazine_ (1912). He calls them “the leanest shadows of our -cheerful inns,” and though bare walls and a bit of a roof would be -better than nothing to a traveller over Barham Downs, yet, compared with -the “warmest welcome in an inn” experienced elsewhere, he would no doubt -call it a cold harbour. Later, and in Middle English, the Heribeorg, -shelter for a host, became as Herberg a synonym for any inn, and later -still Harbourers or harbingers were the caterers or victuallers, who at -last gained the right to sell ale in competition with the more normal -hostelries. Then the trade-name became a surname, and John le Herberger -appears, and perhaps the Harpers of to-day indicate an innkeeper rather -than a musician as their ancestor. - -Of course, the perverse ingenuity of some has invented strange -derivations for the name. Stow suggests that they were coal-stations! -Another writer (who apparently only knew of one Cold Harbour near London -Bridge) that it was where the Köln or Cologne merchants had their -headquarters! Another derives from Col (ubris) arbor—the tree or staff -round which a serpent twines. This is the emblem of Mercury the -messenger of Jupiter, and may have been therefore the sign of the Roman -posting-stations! - - - Anderida. - -As I have already said, Kent was once mainly either dense primæval -forest, or marshland, which fringed nearly all its coastal border from -Sussex to London. The greater part of the forest was that which extended -along the northern border of the South Saxons with a breadth of thirty -and a length of one hundred and twenty miles. But the royal forest of -Blean (in which I was born) is continuous with Anderida, although it -bears a separate name in a charter of King Offa in 791. This would make -the forestal land extend from Whitstable through East and Mid Kent, -Northern Sussex, Southern Surrey, and Eastern Hampshire, right down to -Petersfield. Distinct, but contiguous, was the Cestmwarowalth or -Cestersetta Wald, of which part remains in the woods between Rochester -and Maidstone, although some would place it near Lyminge. - -This primæval forest is still marked by a great survival of woodland and -parks, as a coloured map of Kent would show, and also by the abundance -of the characteristic terminations of burst, den, ley, holt, and feld. -It names the Weald (Teutonic Wad—wood), although therein more cleared -than anywhere else, and the less known Roman road, Well Street, which -ran through it from Maidstone, should be probably the Wald road. - -Generally called Anderida from the name the Romans gave to their fort -and garrisoned place near Pevensey, this is only a change from the -earlier Andred. Coed-Andred was its Celtic name, from Coed, a wood, -which word appears also in Ked Coed (the hollow dolman in the wood), -which was corrupted into Kits Coty House; while the Cotswolds give the -Saxon addition to the Celtic name, so that the meaning is Wood-wood, -just as Durbeck or the Ravensbourne mean Water-water by the Saxon -surnaming of a Celtic name. In early Saxon charters, which are written -in Latin, it appears as Saltus-Andred, Silva-Andred, Saltus communis, or -Silva regalis, while in Saxon it is Andred, Andredsleage, or -Andredsweald. - -As to the meaning of the name, Edwards thinks it a proper name, which is -very improbable considering its extent. Lambarde says Andred in the -Celtic means great, which is simplest and best, provided that such a -word is proved to exist. Dr. Guest refers it, less probably, to a Celtic -negative an and dred, a dwelling, and Lewin to “an” for the “deni,” for -oak-forest, and by a “dhu” for black. - -It may be here interesting to give a list of the names borne nearly a -thousand years ago by some towns and villages in Kent, especially those -in the Weald. In a map in Furley’s _Weald_, he gives the manors and -places mentioned in the Domesday Book (A.D. 1086), and by this it -appears that settlements and cultivation were nearly all on the north -and east edges of the great forest of Anderida. The only exceptions are -Tivedale (now Tudely), Benindene (Benenden), Tepindene (Tiffenden), and -Belicedene, which are deeper in the forest. - -Taking the line of the Kentish Weald from west to east, we find fringing -the primæval wood, Distreham (Westerham), Briestede (Brasted), Sondresse -(Sundridge), Brotenham (Wrotham), Nargourde (Mereworth), Pecheham (W. -Peckham), Pecheham (East Peckham), Otringebury (Wateringbury), Nedstede -(Nettlestead), Hallinges (Yalding), Meddestane (Maidstone), Boltone -Monchensei (Boughton Monchelsea), Certh (Chart Sutton), Suttone (Sutton -Valence), Sudtone (East Sutton), Olecumbe (Ulcombe), Boltone -Archiepiscopi (B. Malherbe), Bogelei (Bewley in B. Malherbe), Piventone -(Pevington), Pluckelei (Pluckley), Rotinge (Roting in Pluckley), -Litecert (Little Chart), Certh Mill, Certh (Great Chart), Eshetesford or -Estefort (Ashford), Merseham (Mersham), Aldingtone (Aldington), Limes -(Lymne), Boningtone (Bonnington), Bilsvitone (Bilsington), Rochinges -(Ruckinge), Orleverstone (Orleston), Werahorne (Warehorne), Tintintone -Dene (Tinton in Warehorne), Apeldres (Appledore), Palestre (Palster in -Wittersham), Newedene (Newenden). - -In the rest of Chenth (Kent) the chief places mentioned in Domesday were -Bromlei (Bromley), Lolingstone (Lullingstone), Tarenteforte (Dartford), -Gravesham (Gravesend), Rovescestre (Rochester), Esledes (Leeds), Scapige -(Sheppey), Favershant (Faversham), Wi (Wye), Goversham (Godmersham), -Cantuaria (Canterbury), Forewic (Fordwich), Roculf (Reculver), Tanet -(Thanet), Sandwice (Sandwich), Estrei (Eastry), Addelam (Deal), Douere -(Dover), Fulchestan (Folkestone), Heda (Hythe), and Romene (Romney). - -One thing that strikes one at once is the proof any list of Kentish -villages gives of the forestal character of Kent. As one of my aims is -to save trouble on the part of some future writer who shall produce the -long overdue History of Kentish Place-Names, I will here transcribe all -which indicate a woodland origin. About a few I am doubtful, but -probably others which I have in ignorance left out would balance them. -There are in this list 20 of the characteristic dens, although far more -survive as the names of manors or now uninhabited parts; there are 15 -hursts and 35 woods—some of the last being no doubt modern as names of -places. I make 174 of these forestal names as under:— - -Abbey Wood, Ackhold (Oakwood), Acol (alias Wood), Acrise? (Oakridge), -Appledore, Arnold’s Oak, Ash, Ashenden, Ashford, Ashley, Ashurst, -Bargrove, Bellegrove (Benenden), Betteshanger, Bircholt, Boghurst -Street, Bough Beech, Boughton (four), Boxhurst (Boxley), Bredhurst, -Broad Oak, Brogueswood, Broome, Broomfield, High Brooms, Broomstreet, -Bush, Challock Wood, Chart (four), Chartham, Chartham Hatch, Cheriton, -Chesnut Street, Cobham Wood, Cowden, Cockham Wood, Colds Wood, Comp -Woods, Crookhurst Street, Denstead, Denstroud, Denton (three), Denwood, -Dingleden, East Malling Woods, Eastwood, Eggringe Wood, Elmley, Elmley -Ferry, Elmstead (two), Elmstone, Eyehorne Hatch, Eyhorne Street, -Eythorne, Hawkenhurst, Filmer’s Wood, Five Oak Green, Forest Hill, Four -Elms, Frogholt, Goathurst Common, Gore Wood, Forsley Wood, Goudhurst, -Grove, Grove End, Grove Ferry, Grove Green, Hatch Green, Hawkhurst, -Hazelwood Hill, Hengrove, Henhurst, Henwood, Heronden, Hoaden, -Hockenden, Hollingbourne, Hollanden, Holm Mill, Holmstone, Holt Street, -Holwood Hill, Hookstead Green (Oakstead?), Horsmonden, Hurst, Ivy Hatch -(Ileden), Kidbrooke?, King’s Wood, Kingsnorth, Knockhall, Knockholt, -Lamberhurst, Leywood, Maiden Wood, Maplescombe, Marden, Mark Beech, -Marwood, Mereworth Woods, Molash, Mussenden, Nagden, Northwood, Norwood -(two), Nurstead (old Nutstead), Oakhurst, Oakley, Old Tree, Otterden, -Oxenden Corner, Paddock Wood, Penenden Heath, Penshurst, Perry Street, -Perry Wood, Pickhurst Green, Pinden, Plumstead, Plumpton, Quarry Wood, -Rainden, Ringwould, Rolvenden, Saltwood, Sandhurst, Sevenoaks, -Shadoxhurst, Sibertswold, Shottenden, Silcox Wood, Sissinghurst, -Smarden, Snoll Hatch, Snoad Street, Southernden, Southwood, Speldhurst, -Standen, Staplehurst, Swanscombe Wood, Tenterden, Thornham, Three -Beeches, Eickenhurst, Waldershare, Waltham, Warden, Weald, Westenhanger, -Westwood (two), Wissenden, Womenswould, Woodchurch, Woodcut Hill, -Woodlands (two), Woodruff, Woodside Green, Wouldham. - - - - - Land Divisions of Kent. - - -Uninterruptedly from Saxon times Kent has been divided into districts -called Lathes, and these into Hundreds, and these again into Borowes or -Townes, the last being in Kent synonymous and used to the exclusion of -the name parish down to the times of Elizabeth. - -First, as to the meanings and uses of these three words. - - -Lathe takes us back to the Saxon Læth for land, and in Latin documents -appears as Lestus or Lastus, _e.g._, “In Lasto Sanctii Augustini” in a -deed of 1347. Lambarde, however, derives it from a verb gelathian, to -assemble; while Latham, following the German writer Zeuss, says the -Terræ lœticæ were lands given to the Lœti. Lœti is the Roman form of -Leute, _i.e._, People, _i.e._, the Teutonic mercenaries who were -imported to defend the Litus Saxonicum—the eastern and south-eastern -coast—which was especially open to the attacks of Scandinavian pirates. -The abstruse and involved explanation will hardy be preferred. It is a -purely Kentish word. - - -Hundred.—This familiar word, first found in the Laws of King Edgar, 1000 -A.D., comes from the old High German (Allemannisch), Huntare or Huntre. -The Huntares in N. Europe were the sub-divisions of the Gau, the primary -settlement with independent jurisdiction, a word to be traced in such -place-names as Spengay and Wormegay, and even in Ely, for its earliest -form was Eligabirig. But why Hundred? Some say each contained an hundred -hides of land (but hundreds vary much in size). Some say each was a -district wherein 100 soldiers had to be forthcoming in war—this approves -itself to Lambarde and Spelman. Some refer it to the original settlement -of 100 Jutish warriors, as sub-divisions of the Teutonic army which -conquered the Britons. Brampton thinks each was to contain 100 villages. -But in view of the historical and legal use of the word one may prefer -the number of the freeholders in an area as constituting the Hundred. -Thus the great legal authority, Blackstone, says: “As 10 families of -freeholders made a town or tithing, so 10 tithings made an Hundred.” -Each had its Hundred Court for civil and criminal jurisdiction; each its -Hundred man or constable; each its Hundred Mote or assembly or -parliament; each its Hundred-penny, or local tax on and in the Hundred. -Most English counties were, and are, divided into Hundreds, wapentakes, -or wards. So Caxton, writing in 1485, says: “In Yorkshire ben xxii -hondredes.” Of these words Wapentake indicates the defensive military -organisation of the Danish intruders, and Hundred the more peaceful -settlements of Jutes and Saxons. A synonym peculiar to Sussex is the -word Rape, the origin of which is said to be that lands seized by the -Conqueror were plotted out by the hrepp or rope. - - -Tithings were the divisions of the Hundred or Wapentake or Ward or Rape, -and the term is used in most counties. But in Kent Borowe or Ton or -Towne is used instead. A Tything, Freeburgh or Decennary, was a district -containing ten householders, who were answerable to the King for each -other’s good behaviour. Each tything formed a little commonwealth, and -chose its own dean (decanus or chief man of ten) or head, who was -sometimes called Alderman on account of his age and experience. Most -commonly, however, he was called the Borsholder from the Anglo-Saxon -Bohr a surety, and Ealder, head or chief. The members of each tything -formed a court of justice in which disputes were heard. Right down to -1836 the inhabitants of an Hundred where damage was done were each -liable to pay compensation for it. The tendency of small bodies to take -petty and shortsighted views in social matters is evidenced in John -Bunyan’s _Pilgrim’s Progress_, where, quoting a much earlier proverb, he -speaks of “Mr. Penny-wise-pound-foolish,” and “Mr. Get-i’-th’ Hundred -and lose i’ the Shire.” - -Originally there were seven Lathes in Kent—Borowart, Estrei, Middletune, -Wiwarlet, Limowart, Sudtone, and Elesford, of which the first five -covered East Kent and the last two West Kent. Each derived its name from -the chief town in each. Those in East Kent had previously been Roman -Villas or towns, while Sutton-at-Hone and Aylesford were of great -antiquity. - -Later Borowart and Estrei were united under the name of S. Augustine’s, -and Middletune and Wiwarlet together formed the Lathe of Sherwinhope, -which again, by the addition of the Seven Hundreds of the Weald and the -Hundred of Marden, received its present territory and name of the Lathe -of Scray. - -One finds also a Lestus de Hedelynge containing the three Hundreds of -Eastry, Quernilo and Beawesberghe. In this district an old wood in -Waldershare is still Hedlinge. - -Since the time of Henry the Third there have been but five Lathes, named -S. Augustine’s, Shepway, Scray, Aylesford, and Sutton-at-Hone. - -Now as to their names. - - -Borowart, Boro-wara-lest, was named from Canterbury, the chief borough -in Kent, and so means the people of the borough, the chief one. Later it -was named from S. Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury, to which a great part -of the land in the Lathe belonged. - - -Estrei, or Estre Last, named from the ancient town of Eastry (which may -enshrine the name of the Saxon goddess of Spring, Eastre—whence our -Easter, from the Christian festival coinciding in time with the heathen -festival) was absorbed into the Lathe of S. Augustine. - - -Middletune (Middeltuna both in the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ and in -Domesday) is our Milton by Sittingbourne, and is said to be named from -being the central town of Kent, as it was then populated and of -importance. - - -Wiwarlet (Wi-wara-lest), the lest of the people of Wye, together with -Middletune, became later part of the Lathe of Sherwinhope (Scrawynghop, -temp. Hen. 3, and Shewynghope 1347). This name was later changed into -that of Scray. What is the meaning of Sherwinhope? Hope in Saxon denotes -a river valley, and Sands, in his _Memorials of Old Kent_, speaks of the -brook Sherway, which falls into the Beult. But what of Scray? - - -Limowart, or Limea, denotes the people of Lymne, the old Roman Portus -Lemanis, called Limene in 1291, then Lymene, Lymen 1396, Limne 1475, and -Lymne 1480. I do not find the intrusive and erroneous p in the name -earlier than 1504. The name was changed to Shippeway or Shipway, temp. -Henry III., and a place in Lymne is still called Shipway Cross. - - -Sudtone, _i.e._, the town south of Dartford, distinguished from other -Suttons by the later addition of “at Hone,” which is said to mean low in -the valley. - - -Elesford, our Aylesford, is so spelled in Domesday, but in the _Saxon -Chronicle_ it is Egelsford, and in Nennius Egisford. It may very well -have been named by the Saxons after the Teutonic hero-archer or demigod -Eigil, though the Celtic Eglwys, a church, has been suggested. It also -appears as Ægelesthrep, and for this a personal name (_e.g._, Ecglaf), -with threp or thorp for town has been suggested. But thorp we get from -the Danes, and find chiefly in the N.E. There are none in Kent. - -The place-name difficulty, however, is intensified when we find, -according to Lambarde in 1570, 13 Hundreds in S. Augustine’s, 14 in -Shepway, 18 in Scray, 14 in Aylesford, and 8 in Sutton-at-Hone, many of -them being long obsolete names, such as Cornilo in S. Augustine’s, -Franchesse in Shepway, Calehill in Scray, Eythorde in Aylesford, and -Coddeshethe in Sutton-at-Hone. And then in some places there are -Half-Hundreds, which, however, did not exist before the reign of Edward -II. - -As a matter of nearer local interest I may quote the divisions and -assessments in the time of the Black Prince of the boroughs of the -Hundred of Maydstone. - - £ s. d. - - Borough of Maydestone was assessed at 19 9 2 - Westre (now West Borough) at 44 2 - Stone (now Stone St. Ward) at 78 2 - Loose at 34 4 - Detlinge at 58 4 - (These two villages were attached - to Maidstone ecclesiastically - until the reign of Elizabeth). - - £ s. d. - - Lynton and Crookherst at 50 8 - East Farleyghe at 45 1 - Boxley at 4 3 4 - Sum £38 18 3 - -I do not understand the omission of the borough of Week or Wyke—whence -Week Street—of which the old manor house still remains in Week Street, -unless it was then included in Boxley. - - -The study of the place-names of a county (as has been well done for our -neighbour Sussex) mainly confines itself to the derivation and meaning -of existing towns and villages, rivers, and hills, and I have done -little more in these notes. But the subject is not then exhausted, for -there is much of great interest to be gathered from the names of -Hundreds, of Manors, and even of separate farms, and their consideration -would largely extend the enquiry. For example, the Hundred Eyhorne in -1347 had the manors of Herbyltone (Harbledown in Harrietsham), -Rissheforde in Hedcorne, Bromfield and Ledes, Sutton Valence, Olecombe, -Heryetesham, Thorneham, Eynton, Bengebery, Wrensted, Frensted, Yoke, -Wytchlinge, Aldington Septvance, Bocton, Malherbe-cum-Wormsell, Fokeham, -Stockberye, Langele, Bygnor, Aldington Cobham, Otteham, B. Monchelsey -alias Westboltone, West Farnebourne, Shelve in Lenham, Leneham, Downe, -Berghestede, Bugeley, Cherletone, and Bressinge, many of these names -being very unfamiliar now. - - [Illustration: decorative glyph] - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - - -—Silently corrected a few typos. - -—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook - is public-domain in the country of publication. - -—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by - _underscores_. - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Place Names in Kent, by John Horsley - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLACE NAMES IN KENT *** - -***** This file should be named 63263-0.txt or 63263-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/2/6/63263/ - -Produced by Brian Coe, Stephen Hutcheson, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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