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TO CHERTSEY ABBEY.
85


From the Hore Thorn the boundary is similar in both the charters, and it goes from the Hore Thorn to "eccan triewe;"[1] and from the eccan triewe to the "Threm Burghen;"[2] from the Threm Burghen unto the "Sihtran" ("Siðren," or "Shightren");[3] from the Siðren into "Merchebrook;"[4] from Merchebrook to "Exleafes burn"[5] (or, as in Ælfred's grant, Exleapes burn); from Exleafes burn to the "Hare (or Hore)

    See also in Shakespeare's King Henry VI. Part 3, Act 2, Sc. 5:—

    "Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade
    "To shepherds looking on their silly sheep
    "Than doth a rich embroidered canopy
    "To kings that fear their subjects' treachery."

    And in Goldsmith's Deserted Village,—

    "The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade
    "For talking age and whispering lovers made."

    The situation of the "Hore Thorn" may be looked for at the angle formed by the parish boundary, near Stanner's-hill farm.

  1. ↑ An oak-tree, probably at Long Cross.
  2. ↑ The Threm Burghen are undoubtedly the three very remarkable large barrows which are called three bury hills, and are close to the house of Mr. Pocock, a member of the Surrey Archæological Society. I am not aware if these fine barrows have ever been explored, and if not, I trust the day is not far distant when, with the permission of the owner, they may be opened by the Society; from which, results equal to those from the late Mr. Gage Rokewood's examination of the Bartlow Hills, in Essex, may be expected.
  3. ↑ This may mean the Tree of Victory, or merely a hollow tree. "Sige tren" would give us the former signification, and the neighbouring barrows may cover the mighty dead; but "Sihtra," or "Siohtra," is a wooden pipe, made of the trunk of a tree, hollowed or bored for the purpose. In a note to the "Monasticon," it is supposed perhaps to be a tree so called; but I think it must mean the stream which runs by Lyne Grove, and where the boundaries of Chertsey, Thorp, and Egham meet.
  4. ↑ Mr. Clark informs me there is a Marshbrook near Lyne Grove.
  5. ↑ Exleafes burn was probably one of the streams forming the Oxley river. Mr. Clark says it was perhaps at Trumps Mill, where there is a stream with a rapid fall.
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