Nov. 13. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



455 



consisted of eight ships, viz. the Maurice, admiral 

 Nee — the Amsterdam, vice-admiral Wibrant de 

 Warwic — the Hollande, the Zelande, the Gueldres, 

 the Utrecht, the Frise, and the Over-Issel. On 

 the 8th August, being to the eastward of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, the Maurice, the Holland, and the 

 Over-Issel were separated from the rest of the 

 fleet in a storm. The vice-admiral, with the other 

 four ships, then made for Do Cerne, where he cast 

 anchor on the 19 th September, to the delight of 

 all the crews, who had been four months and 

 twenty days without setting foot on shore. After 

 refreshing for a fortnight, and naming the island 

 Mauritius or Maurice, and the harbour, Baye de 

 Warwic, he sailed for Bantam, where he found 

 the admiral and the other ships — the entire fleet 

 having lost only fifteen men. BoiiTON Cornet. 



CliABBER NAPPEBS HOLE. — COLD HARBOUR. 



Many of your readers who have visited Graves- 

 ■end have explored the remains of a large forest 

 known as Swanscombe Wood. If so, they are sure 

 to have heard of an extensive excavation, about 

 which many " wondrous " tales are told, called 

 Clabber Nappers Hole. "A Traveller" in 1803 

 gives us the following account of it : 



" In the bosom of Swanscombe Wood, part of which 

 is said to be in Southfleet parish, is a wonderful cavern, 

 divided into detached cells or apartments, excavated 

 from a hill facing the south, at the bottom of which 

 you enter it. This is probably of very remote anti- 

 •quity. The woodmen tell you that once in thirty 

 years, or thereabouts, the rage to see it rises in the 

 minds of the neighbouring villagers ; and they make 

 parties to go and regale there, taking lights, that they 

 may find their way out. Our guide had not been down 

 there for thirty years ; but he says he then saw names 

 and dates thirty years back. The last owner was a 

 terrific kidnapper or freebooter, who may have lived 

 probably many hundred years ago, and whose name 

 seems to originate, like many other proper names of 

 ■old, from his possessions, caer Varhre, the dwelling or 

 habitation in the wood or trees, and now, by colloquial 

 shortening, become clabber, to which they add his pro- 

 fession, napper ; and Clabber Napper's Hole has been 

 the terror of the rising generations, possibly, ever since 

 the time of our great Alfred." — Gent. Mag., 1803. 



A period of much greater antiquity than that 

 •claimed by our " Traveller " may be assigned to 

 Clabber Napper's Hole. It is undoubtedly one of 

 the original habitations of the aborigines who, 

 long before the Christian era, encamped upon the 

 western heights of the Thames, excavating the 

 sandy soil, and forming themselves permanent 

 dwellings. That the residences of the aborigines 

 in this island were subterraneous we have plenty 

 of corroborative evidence, furnished by the authors 

 of the classic era. And the whole of the county 



of Kent exhibits existing proof, by the remains of 

 numerous caverns scattered over its surface. 



With regard to the origin of the name, the hy- 

 pothesis contained in the above extract is some- 

 what far-fetched. Its appellation is evidently 

 Celtic. Tradition has handed it down to us as 

 Caerberlarber, or Clablabber, now corrupted into 

 Clabber Nabber. 



Mr. J. A. Dunkin, who has bestowed much 

 pains and labour in investigating the antiquities of 

 the neighbourhood, remarks, — 



" Even the pronunciation palpably demonstrates the 

 Celtic origin of the nomenclature. All names of places 

 being to a certain extent arbitrary, we can but trace 

 the meaning of the separate syllables, after their con- 

 version into a discriminative or descriptive appellation, 

 for mnemonical convenience, by the settlers. The first 

 syllable is evidently from do, locked or shut in ; which, 

 again, is a compound of cau, an enclosure. Llai is less, 

 from le-is or es, the lower place. Ber, the final particle 

 er, water ; to which the letter b, signifying life, motion, 

 &c., being prefixed, makes ber, spring-water ; thus 

 hypothetically rendering, for an explanation of the 

 syllabic combination, what it certainly is geogra- 

 phically, a town, or an enclosure, near the spriiig-water 

 in the lower place. A different solution may perhaps 

 be furnished from fewer elements : thus, caer, a town ; 

 b, er, I, arbhar, a camp." — Memoranda of Springhead, 

 printed for private circulation, 1848, p. 41.' 



The perils and delusions of etymology, as It has 

 been well remarked, are great ; and a phonetic 

 resemblance in words is assuredly no evidence of 

 a similarity of origin. My object in calling at- 

 tention to this subject is merely to suggest the 

 possibility of " Caerberlarber " being the origin of 

 that "vexatious" term "Cole," or "Cold-harbour." 

 The matter is worth a little examination, for I cer- 

 tainly agree with Captain Smith, that the preva- 

 lence of the latter term, and its English application, 

 merit a fuller consideration than they have yet re- 

 ceived. Edward F. Kimbault. 



MALTESE PROVERBS. 



A few years ago Mr. Vassallo published a work 

 (and I think it is the only one existing) on 

 the enigmas, proverbs, and trite expressions of his 

 countrymen. This work he dedicated to the late 

 Right Hon. J. H. Frere, a gentleman who for a 

 long period made Malta his residence, and by his 

 amiability, piety, and great benevolence, won for 

 himself the esteem and respect of all its inhabitants. 

 I have translated from this little Interesting vo- 

 lume, which appeared In the Italian language, the 

 following brief sayings, which are not without 

 their pungency and point : 



A little good food is better for the stomach than 

 much which is bad. 



A man who will rob a henroost of its eggs, will 

 also steal the hens. 



