288
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
The first mile or two of its course (that part north of the
Roman road) is marked on the Ordnance Maps as Paine's Brook,
and its lower part is, obviously, the "rhine" (O.E. ryne, a ditch,
creek, or waterway) from which Rainham gets the first element
of its name. As a whole, however, the river has long been
known as the Ingrebourne, sometimes spelled Ingerbourne.
The original form of the name was probably Hangrabourne,
from some "hanger" (O.E. hangra, a wood on a hill-side)
which grew formerly on some part of the bank of the river, but
has now disappeared. There is documentary evidence as
to the antiquity of the name Ingrebourne. Thus, in the will
of King Edward the Confessor,40 the river is named as the western
boundary of certain lands which the king left to the Abbey of
Waltham. Further, in the Perambulation of the Forest of
Essex, made in 1301, as already mentioned,41 the Forest Boundary
is described as running along the bank of the Thames from the
mouth of the Beam River,42 as far as a fleet called "Wadeflet"
(probably the mouth of the Ingrebourne) and then up that river
to "a certain bridge called Reynhambeam [that is, Rainham-
"bridge43]."
(8)—The Mardyke (length about 10 miles) rises in the lake
in Thorndon Park, in East Horndon, and flows south and south-
west, through Childerditch, Bulvan, Orsett, and Stifford, to
Purfleet, where it discharges into the Thames. For the last six
miles or so of its course, it forms almost continuously a dividing-
line between parishes, separating chiefly the Ockendons and
Aveley from Childerditch, Bulvan, Orsett, and Stifford. It
drains what was originally, in all probability, the most fenny
portion of Essex, as the names Childerditch,44 Bulphan45 and
Purfleet,46 all suggest.
From what has been said already,47 as to the use of
"mardyke" as the equivalent of "marsh ditch," it will be seen
that it was not originally a name proper, but a mere descriptive
40 Printed by Kemble, Cod. Dipt. AEvi Saxon, iv., p. 135 (1846), and by Thorpe, Dipt. Angl.
AEvi Saxon., p. 394 (1895). The name is printed Inceburne, probably owing to a copyist's error.
41 See ante, p. 287.
42 See ante, p. 287.
43 See ante, p. 287n.
44 Ciltendis and Ciltendic (i.e., ctiten and O.E, dye., a ditch or drain), in Domesday.
45 Bulgeven (i.e., bulge and O.E., fen, a fen), in Domesday. There is also a record of a Bul-
geven in Herefordshire (see McClure, Brit. Place-names, p. 298).
46 Perhaps from O.E. pur, a bittern, and fleot, a ditch or fleet, the bittern ditch (see John-
ston, Place-names of Engl. & Wales, p. 408 : 1915).
47 See ante, p. 287n.