ESSEX RIVERS AND THEIR NAMES. 301
the late Dr. Henry Bradley regarded its94 (or its original from
Grante) as British. 95
(21).—The Bourne (length about 14 miles : but about
6 miles only in Essex) is a tributary of the Cam. It rises almost
exactly on the county-boundary, at a spot in the parish of
Ashdon called "Bourne" on the latest Ordnance Maps, and
flows thence westward for a couple of miles, past a spot called
"Water End," just south of Goldstone's Farm. There it turns
northward and flows through Ashdon village to Bartlow, on
the county-boundary, which it forms for two miles, till it reaches
Linton, where it passes into Cambridgeshire, ultimately joining
the Cam at Great Shelford.
The Bourne, though a small and unimportant stream, is of
interest as being, I believe, the only Essex river properly called
a "bourne" in the modern sense : that is, a stream which rises
in a valley in the chalk and runs intermittently, only after
heavy rain, rising at different points higher and higher up its
valley, according to the amount of rain. Probably "Water
End" is the point at which it rises usually.
(22).—The Slades (three in number, each about 3-4 miles
long) all rise just east of Saffron Walden and flow westward
into the Cam. The southernmost, known as the Fulfen (i.e.,
Foul-fen) Slade, rises close to Thundersley Hall, in Wimbish,
and flows past the Roos Farm to the Cam at Audley End, near
which it runs through the boggy spot from which it gets its name.96
The second rises close to Pounce Hall and flows through the
town of Saffron Walden, passing along the bottom of the
Common. It joins the next just before it enters the Cam.
The third rises near Little Walden Park, flows down just north
of Saffron Walden, passes through the Park of Audley End
and enters the Cam at Duck Street.
As to the name "Slade" ; one may observe that it is not
rightly a river-name at all. A slade (from O.E. slaed) is defined97
as a "Valley, dingle, or dell ; an open space between banks or
"woods ; a forest glade; a strip of greensward or of boggy land,"
94 Engl. Place-Names, p. 39 (1910).
95 Prof. Boulger (op. cit., p. 84), calls the Cam, for some incomprehensible reason, "The
Brook or Granta." I have never heard it so called. Mr. Cyril Fox calls it (Cambridge Region,
p. xxii.: 1923) the "Essex Cam," to distinguish it from the main branch of the Cam, which rises at
Ashwell, in Hertfordshire.
96 The name "Fulfen" occurs also in Staffordshire (see Duignan, Place-Names of Staffs.
p. 64 : 1903).
97 See New. Engl. Dict.