118 BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM. 
date. The name has of late years been associated with the visit of 
‘Queen Elizabeth, who, on May Day, 1602, came a-maying to Sir 
Richard Buckley’s, at Lewisham. The tradition is that the great 
queen dined under the shade of an oak tree on the summit of the 
hill either on this or some other occasion. The story is not 
improbable, seeing the proximity to Greenwich, where the Court 
was frequently in residence, but it must in truth be confessed that 
there is no direct evidence which can be brought in support. The 
name, Oak of Honour, is, however, at least as old as 1612, as it 
then occurs as one of the bounds of Lewisham Manor. The view 
from the hill, which is 300 feet high, is very extensive, and must 
have been of great beauty before the long lines of streets began to 
cover the surrounding landscape. As the result of a strong 
remonstrance against the enclosing of what is claimed as an historic 
site, the summit of the hill was purchased in 1905, and is maintained 
by the Borough of Camberwell as an open space, a fresh oak tree 
being planted to keep in remembrance the story of the name. On 
the eastern slope of the hill is the Church of St. Augustine, which 
was built in 1874. This is now for administrative purposes in the 
Parish of Camberwell. By a rearrangement of boundaries that 
portion of Lewisham from Honor Oak Park to Ivydale Road, 
Nunhead, was exchanged with Camberwell for a somewhat similar 
area south of Forest Hill Road, bounded on the west by Wood 
Vale and Sydenham Hill. Historically, however, Honor Oak must 
be claimed as within the bounds of Lewisham. 
CHAPTER NV. 
Tue PARISH CHURCH TO RUSHEY GREEN. 
E must now turn back, through Ladywell to Lewis- 
ham High Street, to the building and site around 
which the parochial life of the parish has centred 
for at least a thousand years—the Parish Church. 
It is the story of no splendid fane, with ‘‘ storied 
aisles and windows richly dight,” that we have to 
tell, and yet, simple to insignificance as the building was through- 
out the greater part of its history, it can tell us of the devotion of 
many a generation for the worship of Almighty God, whilst in the 
churchyard sleep countless numbers of our predecessors from 
Saxon times almost to the present day. 
When a church was first erected here it is not possible to say. 
As we have seen, the district was settled, with a name, in the gth 
century, and in 918 became the property of the Abbey of St. Peter, 
and when in 964 the grant was confirmed by King Edgar, the 
words, speaking of Lewisham, Greenwich, etc., ‘‘ with their 
