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ETYMOLOGIES.

THE earliest mention of Camberwell occurs in the survey made by order of William the Conqueror, and commonly called Domesday Book. It was commenced in 1085, and finished before the close of the year following.

The name has undergone little change during a course of nearly eight centuries. In this record it is written "CA'BREWELLE;"a and two hundred years afterward is spelled according to its present orthography. In records of this date, and for subsequent centuries however, it is usually written "Camerwell," and sometimes Cammerwell. And these for the sake of brevity have been contracted into Camb'well, Camwell and Kamwell.

Peckham is also mentioned in Domesday Book, where the name is written “PECHEHA'. ” b

Local names appear to be either indigenous, or transplanted. The name of Camberwell belongs to the first of these classesthat of Peckham, to the latter. An eminent antiquary who has been for more than half a century resident amongst us, refers the etymology of Camberwell to the old British, deducing it from cwm hir,—the long comb or hollow. The popular derivation is from some spring or well; but both these are only partial interpretations of the name, and neither of them quite satisfactory. Salmon, speaking of Camberwell, says, "it seems to be named from some mineral water which was anciently in

a Domesday Book tab: xiii. In the frontispiece this name is given in fac-simile. See preceding note.

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it," which he supposes "came afterwards into a quagmire or was forgotten." Bray adopts this idea, which certainly gives what little point it has to an "old saw" which I remember to have heard long ago.

"All the maids in Camber-well

Can dance in an egg-shell

Because there are no maids in that well."

A rejoinder equally witty is still extant,

"All the maids in Camberwell town

Cannot dance on an acre of groun'."

"It has been conjectured," says the writer of "a short historical and topographical account of St. Giles's Church," published in 1827, "that as the name of St. Giles conveys an idea of cripples, the well which gave part of the name to the village might have been famous for some medicinal virtues, and might have occasioned the dedication of the Church to this patron saint of cripples and mendicants."a

a As he seems to have been, from the subjoined legend, which wants nothing but antiquity to recommend it.

THE MERVEILLOUS HYSTORIE OF S. GYLES, THE ABBOT.

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This theory suggests a very fair interpretation of the first part of the name: "camber," an arched piece of timber, whence,

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"O! holie Sainct Egede" qd he

"What physicke-art may do

"Ye shal not lacke, if ye will say ;

"And straitest penaunce too '—

"Not soe,' qd Gyles, 'thys smarte is helthe
"If ye but rightly knewe."

And soe to paine himself alwaies

That holie man was prest

(Wherefore some thinke he was a foole,

And I, amonges the rest;

Though "every one" as Cocker saithe

"To that he liketh best.")

Ones as he walked by Tyber

Two dores had gone astraye

Whych in the yellow streme he cast
And bade them spede their way

When lo! to his owne chyrche they come
(As wel, methinkes, they may.)

And there, anon, he sette them up,

For all yt passed to see

How grete a marvel he had done;

Thoughe none it seemes to me,

His pitie of
sick-folk

He turneth
Hermit,

and is strooke
of ye kynge
of Fraunce
whiles
hunting.

The kynge
is sorie.

His godly
speech;

and penaunce.

He findeth
two dores,

looseth,

and again
findeth

them,

setting them up at his owne chyrche.

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MINERAL WATERS.

probably, our vulgarism a-kimbo, being evidently derived from the old british cam, which signifies crooked; for "to this day in Cornwall," says Camden, "a crooked river is called 'camel.'" a The name of our village will therefore, under this interpretation, mean the well of the crooked,' or crippled; which is perhaps the best etymology we can arrive at, unless we suppose at once that it was cambered over, as is the case with other holy wells, to protect it from the impurities of the atmosphere, or the thoughtless intrusion of passers by.

The character of the soil of this neighbourhood, impregnated, as has been shewn, with sulphur, iron and lime, would readily impart medicinal properties to the waters that filter through it, as we find to have been the case with the Dulwich mineral springs, discovered in 1739. The Streatham and Sydenham waters were in repute still earlier, being mentioned in Gibson's additions to Camden, 1695. The former continue much in vogue, as are also those of the Beulah Spa at Norwood. The Bermondsey wells, and those at the Dog and Duck, both within a reasonable distance, though formerly much celebrated, have now had their day, and are almost forgotten.

That he shoulde stele two cypress dores

Who woulde have stolen three!

But of his goodlie dethe it nedes

That I sholde something write,
How holie, blissful angels came
To beare away his spryte
And with soft aires & melody

Did rounde aboute him light;

And as his soule alofte did go

They songen loude & clere ;
So wryte some auncyent legendes
Thoughe moche they lie, I fere
For litel trouthe in any thinge
I wete, abydeth here!

"Brit: fol. 1695, col. 403.

He dieth,
hearing

swete

music,

and so goeth

home

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Amidst the gross darkness, however, of monkish times, it was not unusual to refer such healing influences to waters that could not impart them. Thus Chaucer mentions a counterfeit. shoulder-bone, purporting to be that of a holy jew's sheep ;in praise of which his Pardonere thus holds forth :

"Good men, say I, take of my wordés keepe,

If that this bone be washen in any well;
If cow, or calfe, or shepe, or oxe swell
That any worme hath ete, or worm ystonge,
Take water of this well, and washe his tonge,
And it is hole anon."

:

Whether Camber-well be now lost or forgotten, or whether it be that rising in the grounds of Grove-hill, as report would have it to be, I am not competent to say. No mineral virtues have been ascribed to the latter, but it appears to have been of some consequence, for in 1782, when the property on which it rises changed hands, the proprietors of the estate reserved to "themselves, their heirs, and assigns, in common with the tenant, the free use of it."

The name of Peckham seems to have been imported, as its situation does not agree with its etymology-Peac-ham, the village on the hill. This derivation applies admirably to Peckham near Mereworth, in Kent, which stands on the very summit of a bold ridge overlooking the rich valley of the Weald. As in many cases people took names from the locality in which they were born or resided, so in numerous other instances, "they called their lands after their own names,” and in this way Peckham may possibly have received its appellation. Dulwich appears in very ancient times to have been simply called la wyk," the village. This name it gave to a family

" Wic though usually represented by the latin sinus, a creek or bay, and sometimes understood of a castle or station, signifies a village as well.

fol. 1695, col. 396. And sometimes a farm. Coke.

Cam. Brit.

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