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CONCERNING CERTAIN ESSEX RIVERS.
By THOMAS M. BLACKIE, F.S.A.
THE little stream which runs through Braintree, past the Notleys,
Faulkbourn, Chipping Hill and Witham has no reliable name,
and during recent government surveys has had some arbitrary appella-
tions assigned to it. It has been called the "Guith," "Pod's Brook,"
and the "Brain." Some have imagined it to be the Pant, and others,
I need not say most erroneously, have dubbed it the Blackwater.
Of these names that of the "Guith" has the most ancient ring.
But, so far as my examination goes, I cannot find that it was ever
so called in remote days. Dr. Stukeley, in his "Itinerarium Curio-
sum," Iter v., p. 85 (second edition, folio, 1776), derives the name
of the river Witham (pronounced in Lincolnshire "Wytham"),
from the British word Guithavon, the "separating river," and pro-
bably with good reason, as the following quotation will show. He
is journeying along the old Roman road, Hermen Street, and having
mentioned various stations and towns in Lincolnshire he thus
proceeds :—
" Thirty lesser miles from Durobrivis you come to Paunton,
which must needs be Causennis; it is indeed twenty-seven measured
miles the Hermen street accompanying. This village is at present
under the hill, where the road goes near the spring of the Witham
(Wytham), to which I suppose its name alludes, as the present to
bant avon ; both signify the valley of the river in British ; perhaps
the most ancient name of the river was Cavata, whence that part of
the country that is watered by it assumed the name of Kestevon,
importing the river Cavata, Cavaut avon—as Lindsey from Lindum—
the present name Witham, or Guithavon, signifying the separating
river, as it principally divides these two."
But Morant, who probably did not refer to the learned doctor's
work, erroneously supposing that he was discussing the derivation
of the town of Witham, contests his conclusions and expresses his
belief that the Saxon words wit and ham (spelt in the old chronicles
Hwittam), are the real origin of the name. Dr. Stukeley may be
perfectly right as it regards the Lincolnshire river, and he certainly
never intended his remarks to include the Essex town. Now the
little Witham river did not bear the name of the Guith until about
fifty years ago, when the late Mr. Jacob H. Pattisson, adopting the
error of Morant, christened, with some ingenuity, the new street cut