FORMER NESTING OF THE SPOONBILL IN MIDDLESEX. 85 
the place is mentioned, namely, a grant of the manor to the 
Bishop of London and his successors a.p. 691, it is spelled 
Fulanham.* 
Norden, who himself lived at Fulham, tells us in his 
‘Speculum Britanniz,’ 1593 (parsi. p. 20), that ‘the name of 
the place was anciently written Fullenham or Fullonham, which 
(as Master Camden taketh it)+ signifieth volucrum domus, the 
habitacle of birdes, or the place of fowles, Fullon and Fuglas in 
the Saxon toong doe signifie fowles, and ham or hame as much as 
home in our toong. So that Fullonham or Fuglas-hame is as 
much to saie as the home, house, or habitacle of fowle. It may 
be also taken for volucrum amnis, or the river of fowle; for ham 
also in many places signifieth amnis, a river. But it is most 
probable it should be of lande fowle, which usually haunt groves, 
and clusters of trees, whereof in this place, it seemeth, hath 
been plentie.”’ 
This opinion of Norden (backed by the authority of Camden), 
although written some seventy years after the event in question, 
curiously enough receives strong confirmation from the fact that 
Herons and Shovelers, ‘‘ lande fowle which usually haunt groves,” 
were breeding on the very spot in 1528. Their existence there 
at this date is to be attributed partly to the direct protection 
afforded them by the lord of the manor, and partly to the 
inaccessible position of their nesting trees, which, so far as the 
_ general public were concerned, could only have been approached 
from the river, and then not without risk of action for trespass. 
Local historians inform us that the few roads which then 
existed in the parish of Fulham were at times nearly impassable, 
two teams of horses being required to draw one cart. From 
entries in the parish books it appears that the highway rate at 
that period nearly equalled the poor rate, a proof of the wretched 
condition in which the roads must then have been. Indeed, it 
was not until about 1750 that there was much improvement in 
this respect. 
* Wharton, Hist. de Episcop. Lond. 1676, p. 18. The manor of Fulham 
was anciently held by the Bishop of London of the Saxon Kings by the 
service of prayers for the soul of the donor, and in 1066, as appears by the 
Domesday Book, the Bishop of London held forty hides of land at Fuleham. 
The palace was built by Bishop Fitzjames in the reign of Henry VII., by 
whom he was created Bishop of London in 1505. 
+ Camden, ‘ Britannia,’ 1586. 
