Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/525

This page needs to be proofread.

9* s. viii. DEO. 28, loci.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


517


LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1901.


CONTENTS. No. 209.

NOTES : -The West Bourne, 517-' Leisure Hour' Jubilee, 518 Snuff-taking, 519 Petosiris and Ptolemy Black Armlet as Mourning " Poor soul," a Drink, 520 -Mono- syllables in Literary Composition "Swede" : a Ghost- word Zoar Chapel, Southwark Anagram Compulsory Costume for Jews and Christians Children and Phonetics Dickens and Westland Marston, 521 Hawson Oak and Greek Cross H. Chamberleu the Younger Eev. K. Hooker, 522.

QUERIES : Sorrow's ' Zincali ' Richard I. Charles V. on European Languages Cossen or Cosen Shelley 's Cottage at Lynmouth Hymnbook at Horsham, 52J - Order of Buffaloes " The books are all open" Burial Service read over a Rail Bronze Coin London M.P.s Fire at Ilminster Lord Beaulieu's Pictures at Ditton Park Parentage of Caesar Borgia, 524 -Christie Family "Oh, life so short ! " " Exoner "Seven Signature of Duke of Cambridge Hammond and Roe, 525.

REPLIES : William the Conqueror's Half Brothers and Sisters, 525 Bruce and Burns, 527 Author of Saying- Bricks, 528 "Halsh" Curious Epitaph H. S. Conway "Panshon," 529 Bibliography of the Bicycle "Gentle shepherd, tell me where," 530 "Frail" The Mitre, 531 Youthful M.P.s English Detenus Rime on Edward VII. " Omnium gatherum "Cork Leg, 532 Byrom's Epi- gramLords Lieutenant Wife of Capt. Morris Sarten, 533 The Duchy of Berwick, 534.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Rankin's The Marquis d'Argenson and Richard II.' Wills's ' Florentine Heraldry ' Baillie's ' The Oriental Club and Hanover Square ' ' The Clergy Directory and Parish Guide ' ' Whitaker's Almanack.'

Notices to Correspondents.


goto*

THE WEST BOURNE.

IN the course of the current year some very remarkable articles have been published in the Builder, which will be of the greatest service to the London topographer of the future. They are respectively named and dated * Westminster, Old and New, 1801- 1900' (part i., 5 Jan., p. 11 ; part ii., 12 Jan., p. 34) ; ' The Grosvenor Estate, and Pimlico, Belgravia, and Mayfair, 1801-1900' (6 July, p. 4) ; and ' Chelsea, Little Chelsea, and Brompton, 1801-1900' (2 Nov., p. 382). They are admirably illustrated, and give accurate and succinct summaries of the changes that have been effected in the western districts of London during the last century. In reading them carefully I have been struck by the use that the writer makes of a local term for which, though it is very commonly employed, I have been unable to discover any historical foundation, and it would therefore give me great pleasure if I could ascertain its origin.

This term is the " West Bourne " as applied to the rivulet which, rising amongst the Hampstead hills, flows through Kilburn, Paddington, and Bays water, until it reaches


the Serpentine, whence it emerges and con- tinues its course through Knightsbridge and Chelsea, until it debouches into the Thames as the Ranelagh sewer. It will be remem- bered that several years ago thatdistinguished antiquary Mr. J. G. Waller contributed a paper entitled * The Ty bourne and the West- bourne' to the Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, vol. vi. pp. 244-79, which traced out the course of these two streams, and gave many interesting historical particulars regarding the districts through which they flowed. Mr. Waller does not give any information regarding the origin of the name of Westbourne, beyond saying that the stream was "properly so called, from which I infer that in Mr. Waller's opinion it received its name from its position being westward of the other stream. At the end of his paper he further declares that " it gives name to many of the localities on its course, as well as to the manor of West- bourne."

A writer can only testify to facts within his own knowledge, and whilst I find the manor of Westbourne mentioned in many ancient documents, I have been unable to discover any reference to "the West Bourne" until comparatively recent times. In Hardy and Pages 'Calendar to the Feet of Fines for London and Middlesex ' there are numer- ous transfers of land in Westbourne re- corded. The earliest is dated 43 Hen. III., 1258, when Margery, daughter of Hugh de Fonte, made over premises in " Westeburne " to Brother Walter, master of the Hospital of St. James without London. At that period the manor of Westbourne, in conjunction with that of Knightsbridge, was hem by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, and it was retained by them until the Dissolution. In order to prove that the manor derived its name from the brook, it is necessary to show that the latter was called the Westbourne at some period prior to 1258.* According to Bosworth, s.v. 'Burne,' this word, when used as a prefix or termination to the names of places, denotes that they were situate near a stream, and it therefore seems reasonable to suppose that Westbourne received its name from its situation on the west bank of the rivulet. In early times I doubt if the stream lad any specific name. It was probably only known as the bourne or brook. The accom- plished author of the papers in the Huilder writes that the "Lordship of Ebury " had the West Bourne for its western boundary,


  • The vill of Westburn is mentioned so early as

/he Decree of 1222, which defined the limits of t. Margaret's parish*