376
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. MAY 10, im
viction to the minds of those who, like
myself, require proof of a statement before
accepting it. The strong searchlight which
is now being thrown on the fictions which
figure as historical genealogies in our popular
peerages is in course of extension over the
wide field of historical topography, and pro-
babilities and assumptions no longer pass
muster as ** authoritative " facts.* MR.
RUTTON begins by saying that the territorial
word " bourn," of French extraction, was not
engrafted on English stock until our own
similar word, as an indigenous plant, had
flourished for centuries. But is there any
evidence that the word "bourn," of French
extraction, was ever a constituent of English
place-names ? A few instances showing how
and when the French "bourn" was en-
grafted on English stock would be welcome
The picture which my friend draws of the
" London native " emerging from his shell,
and in the course of an afternoon's ramble
settling the local nomenclature of the dis-
trict, is an attractive one ; but is it history [
It must be remembered that in primeva'
times many more streams were known to the
" travelling citizen " of London than the three
named by MR. RUTTON. The two great arms
of marshland which, on east and west
grasped London in their clutches were a
maze of tiny rivulets, some of which tricklec
from the northern heights into the Thames
while others were affluents of the large
streams. The eastern and western bound ariei
of the London district were respectively
the Lea and the Brent. A walk to eithe
was within the capacity of an ordinary able
bodied, long-legged Anglo-Saxon, and if he
started, as we may suppose, from that im
portant stream the Walbrook, which practi
cally divided ecclesiastical London from th
trading emporia on the river, he might hav
called all the rivulets in the Brent direction
" West Bournes," while those in the opposit
direction would be " East Bournes." No satis
factory reason has been given why th
stream afterwards known as the Bayswate
Rivulet should have been arbitrarily de
signated the West Bourne. Why not, fo
instance, the brook, afterwards canalized
which divided the parishes of Chelsea an
Fulham 1
There are few, if any, rivers in Englan whose names are identical with the names o the districts through which they flow. Th Anglo-Saxon " burne " is, of course, a commo
- I use the adjective in the sense employed b
Mr. J. Horace Round in his instructive paper o 'An "Authoritative" Ancestor' in the dncesto for April, p. 189.
actor in place-names, but in the majority of
nstances it occurs in the names of towns and
illages, and not in the names of streams,
am abroad at present, and have not access j
an English gazetteer, but, writing from memory, this is my impression. In my last note I gave the names of a group of villages
n East Kent having the terminal " bourne," )ut at this moment I cannot recall the name of a single streamlet in the district which ends with that word, though doubtless some exist.
It is quite true, as MR. RUTTON says, that
- his termination implies water, but this fact
is perfectly consistent with the hypothesis which, with Bos worth at my back, I pro- visionally put forward namely, that the old thirteenth - century manor of Westbourne derived its name from its situation on the western bank of the rivulet. But I am open to conviction on the production of the evi- dence for which I asked. It would be very satisfactory if some Eastbourne correspon- dent of * N. & Q.' could assist us with infor- mation on the following points : (a) was that town originally situated on a brook called the East Bourne, from which it has derived its name ; or (b) was the first settlement made on the eastern bank of a brook, nameless or not?
There are one or two other points in MR. BUTTON'S pleasantly written note from which
1 must regretfully express my dissent, such as the identity of the Holebourne with the River of Wells another subject " highly charged with argument," on which I have already recorded my opinion in these columns and the origin of the name " Thames," on which the latest word has perhaps been said by Mr. W. H. Duignan in his valuable little book on 'The Place-names of Staffordshire' (sub voce 'Tame'), which was recently re- viewed in ' N. & Q.' But these points are, of course, beside the main question at issue.
W. F. PRIDEAUX. Villa d'Este, Cernobbio, Como.
" BAR SINISTER " (9 th S. ix. 64, 152, 215, 315). A correspondent of the Intermediaire for 10 March, in treating of the " barre," wrongly considered to be a mark of " bas- tardy," observes that " a certain incoherence reigns in what has been said by classic and contemporary Mraldistes regarding this charge." He then goes on to ask for an examination of the question, and commences the discussion by quoting the article * Barre,' with the accompanying remarks, by the Count A. de Foras ('Le Blason, Dictionnaire et Remarques,' Grenoble, 1883, pp. 47 and 48),
