HI. ISIS. T A MUSIS. THAMES HEAD. 25 



forda, on ' Temese ;' Eadwig, A.D. 956, mentions Cenigtune on 

 ' Temese/ with a branch called Wulfric's broc. Eadgar, A.D. 968, 

 grants^lands at Cumenoran (Cumnor), and gives the ' Temese' as 

 part of the boundary. ^Ethelred, A.D. 1005, gives lands to the 

 Monastery of Egnisham, 'juxta fluvium qui vocatur "Tamis." 

 Eadweard, in A.D. 1 050, gives to Godwin lands at Sandforda, below 

 Oxford, which are on ' Temese ;' in A.D. 1054, the church at Ab- 

 bandon receives the same lands on * Temese/ On the boundary 

 of these lands lies what is called ' Sandfordes Isece/ 



Thus at several stations as well above Oxford as below it, and 

 far above the junction of the Thame, the river is proved to have 

 borne the name of ' Temese ' for 900 years, and no other name is 

 ever assigned to it till Saxon or British names were modified in 

 Greek or Latin verse c . 



Thames Head. Various in character and, if we may so speak, 

 unequal in dignity are the sources of the many branches of the 

 Thames. To which of them should be given the proud title of 

 the birthplace of the chief of English rivers, if we had the power 

 of choice, might be a ground of fair dispute. Assuming, however, 

 that the western branch of the river, which brings supplies from 

 near Malmesbury, Tetbury, and Cirencester, is to retain the title, 

 we have no difficulty in settling the rival claims of the two forks 

 referred to; the long dull stream from the clays and stony hills 

 near Malmesbury, called ' Swill Brook, 3 and the shorter, clearer, 

 refreshing rivulet which has been honoured by the name of ' Thames 

 Head/ or ' the very head of Isis/ 



The drainage of Swill Brook is separated from that of the Wilt- 

 shire Avon by a low summit of Oxford clay, and strata below 

 it, less than 300 feet above the sea. 



Swill Brook, a humble Wiltshire brook, has no title to be com- 

 pared with the vigorous river as once it rose with a full stream out 

 of Trewsbury Mead, and crossed the road from Cirencester to 

 Tetbury; as once it rose at the bidding of nature from the one 

 grand outlet of a broad surface of dry oolite. In a valley now 

 commonly dry, but still occasionally too full of subterranean water 



c See for authorities quoted to prove the true name of the stream, the Codex 

 Diplomaticus JEvi Saxonici, edited by Kemble ; for the reference to which I am 

 indebted to the Rev. J. Griffiths, M.A., Registrar of the Archives of the Uni- 

 versity of Oxford. 



