294 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
through the grounds of Leez Priory (just to the north of which,
it performs a remarkable Z-shaped double-twist, with very-
sharp angles and fairly-straight stretches, each about two
miles long) ; after which, it continues generally south-eastward,
passing through Terling and Hatfield Peverel, to Ulting, where
it joins the Chelmer.
The name Ter is of very-doubtful antiquity ; for it does not
appear on any of the early maps of Essex. Yet it is not
entirely modern ; for it appears on the maps of Chapman &
Andre (1777) and Cary (1824). Obviously, it is a back-formation
from Terling ; which, as Mawer and Stenton suggest,68 is
probably derived from some lost stream-name allied to tyre
and ing, a meadow. Yet it is not clear why the name should
have been taken from Terling; for that is one only of the parishes
through which the river flows, and not the largest or most
important.
(15).—The Pant or Blackwater (length about 33 miles) is
still another tributary of the Chelmer and is the third of
the important Essex rivers which flow down from the small, but
remarkable, watershed in the north-west corner of the county.
The Pant rises at Frog's Green, in Wimbish, and flows a fairly-
straight course from its source to the sea, except for a wide
curve northward between Braintree and Witham. It flows
through Radwinter, the Sampfords, the. Bardfields, Wethersfield,
Shalford, Panfield, Bocking, Stisted, Bradwell, the Coggeshall,
Kelvedon, Wickham Bishops, and Langford, to Maldon. Har-
rison (1587) describes its course in great detail, probably because
it rises close to, and flows through, the parish of which he was
rector.69 Norden (1594) says of it70 that, "rising nere Wimbishe,
"taking a longe circular course, [it] passeth throwgh Cogshull
"groundes and falleth into Chelmer at Maldon." Harrison's
description of its course, though detailed, is in some respects
puzzling. He calls it71 the "Gwin or Pant," Gwin meaning,
he says, beautiful or fair. Not far from its source, it receives,
he says, a stream from "Pantwell" (a place I am unable to-
identify), and, a little lower down, another stream from
Froshwell (another place I am unable to identify) ; which stream
68 Survey of Engl. Place-Names, p. 25 (1924).
69 See ante, p. 28cm.
70 Discrip. of Essex, 1594, fo. 12 (printed ed., p. 11 : 1840).
71 Op. cit., i., p. 106 (1587).