310
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. HI. APML 22, m
from one locality to another during or after
their construction. If Abendon Abbey was
one of this class, it should not be believed on
the strength of Leland's repetition of a mere
tradition ; and if the former site is marked on
the Ordnance map, it is merely as indicating
the belief of the engineer who had charge
of the survey of that part of Berkshire. On
this position of the abbey he founds an argu-
ment in which he neglects the port-street
belonging to Abbendune, a feature his isolated
abbey would scarcely be likely to possess.
By this supposition, too, he so narrows down
the area that it can hardly include the three
districts of Aethelingwood, Cumnor, and
Gatscornbe. He identifies Sandford with a
Stanford, when only one version of a single
document can be produced to support the
latter mode of spelling. Few seem acquainted
with the fact that a belief was current in the
early part of the seventeenth century that
Oxford took its name from a ford near Ken-
nington Island (vide Hutten's ' Antiquities of
Oxford '). He uses the term Isis for the
Thames, but will find that all documents are
adverse to this promiscuous use of the two
words ; and lastl} 7 , he speaks of the insertion
of metce, or bounds, in a charter, as being
something out of the common.
The sequence of the places which mark the limits in Ceadwalla's charter is somewhat as follows : 1, Eoccenford, as MR. SHORE re- marks, usually taken as Oxford ; 2, Abbey dyke, i.e., of Abbendune ; 3, Cealdanwull, (?) Chilswell ; 4, Mark-ford or boundary-ford ; 5, Green-way ; 6, a brook ; 7, Wood-ford ; 8, the outshoot of Pippel's streamlet ; 9, Valley- moor ; 10, Bith-ige, streamlet isle; 11, Man's grave ; 12, Pippel-bridge ; 13, Fulan oak, of criminal (?) ; 14, Hedgelea ; 15, Broad mere ; 16, a hill-foot ; 17, a row of stubs ; 18, Brom- cumbe's head ; 19, Abbendune ; 20, the Port- street or city street ; 21, a highway ; 22, Ecgune's (or Egwin's) homestead or court- yard ; 23, Bacgan-leah ; 24, Scseceling acer ; 25, Stanford ; 26, Msegthe-ford, province-ford or tribe-ford ; 27, Thamese ; 28, Miclan-ige on Cearewele, large island at (?) Cherwell ; 29, (?) neothan berige ; 30, Bacgan's brook ; 31, Heafce's ridge or border ; 32, Holan dene (? hollow vale) ; 33, Tidewalds well ; 34, Thamese ; 35, the dyke of Occene ; 36, the Ock ; 37, Ock-ford.
Out of these the writer chooses a few to experiment upon. Thus : 1, Eoccenes, " now Osney." This may be ; but if Eoccen, with three variants, incontestably stands for the Ock, the Abingdon river, it is hazardous to transfer it to an island on the Thames. Some form like Osan-eig has been suggested or
discovered which does not demand the inser-
tion of the s sound absent in the stem eocce.
From 4 to 17 seem to be places, probably lost
to us, down the Ock straight towards Abben-
dune (the real). 28, a fork -shaped lake and
a long lake, he tells us, are " now represented
by river islands of these shapes." The locality
of these should be stated, as should his reason
for thinking that the Thames deposits islands
to obliterate its pools. 23, Backer-lake " of
Oxford mediaeval records," he says is Bacgan's
brook ; but one would look nearer Bacgan's-
leah (our Bagley, three miles off) for such a
ditch, not at a spot about 120 yards south of
the old gasworks. Bacgan's homestead occurs
(charter of Eadwig, 946) in the metce of
Cenigtune (Kennington), in which, if any-
where, and if MR. SHORE is correct in his
attributions, we should expect to find the
place Msegtheford ; but it is not mentioned,
and that for the very simple reason that
Stanford and Maegtheford (in conjunction)
are above Oxford, and occur as boundaries in
the same king's charter (A.D. 955 or 956, Prof.
Earle's ' Land Charters ') of Hinksey, Wytham,
and Seek worth. Had these two stood apart
in the latter bounding, there might have been
some hope for his theory about these two
places ; but to suppose that in the interval
between Cead walla and Eadwig they
gone up stream a few miles, and still kept
company together, is past belief. 31, Heafce's
ora is " the Great Sandhills, in the same re-
cords" ; but Sandhulls farm, or Sandells, is no
ora or ridge, as in Cumnor or Bognor, but a
low-lying meadow, turf over a loose gravel,
" great " only because it has a smaller one
near it. 15, Bradley (south-east of Cumnor)
is twisted to make it fit Bradmere. To con-
found leagh and mere is somewhat dangerous.
There is probably some rule to be dis- covered which will explain how these early names became corrupted. One instance may be noted. Ocanlea becomes Ocley, not Oxley, and Occanslaew becomes Ockslow, the latter change being not unlike that which might convert Eoccenes into Qsen(ey). I write this with the motive of getting near to the truth, and trust that some Saxon scholar will read over the three charters mentioned and en- lighten us as to the reasonableness of ME. SHORE'S theory, and that others who have good knowledge of theold names of localities around the Ock will kindly communicate any that seem to bear a resemblance to the first twenty- one of the list. HERBERT HURST.
6, Tackley Place, Oxford.
" STRENUA NOS EXERCET INERTIA " (9 th S. i. 381 ; ii. 70, 292). In a note thus headed the
