258 



Uierldll Gleanings. 



fight, both in the days when the earthworks at Oldborough were 

 made and in those in which they were subsequently re-occupied and 

 re-modclled. In a letter by Hearne, the Editor of Leland's Itin- 

 erary, upon " Some Antiquities between London and Oxford," he 

 gives a translation of a note which he had discovered upon the 

 margin of some ancient MS, to the following effect : — u In the year 

 821 a battle was fought between Egbert, King of the West Saxons, 

 and Ceolwulph, King of Mercia, in a place called Cherrenhull, be- 

 tween Abingdon and Oxford, in which Ceolwulph was overthrown." 

 And he adds " Probably Cherhill, Wilts ; as there is no Cherrenhull 

 between Abingdon and Oxford ; but at Wilts Cherhill there is a 

 camp." I would not on any account lay undue stress upon the 

 opinion of this unknown antiquarian. At the same time it is 

 noticeable that the Saxon Chronicle, though it does not specifically 

 name this fight, mentions that in the year 821 Ceolwulph was in 

 difficulties, which one may regard as a confirmation of the tradition, 

 good for what it may be worth. 



The meaning of the name of Cherhill is a matter of considerable 

 doubt. A learned writer of the present day says that it "baffles 

 the enquiry of the etymologist to unravel its derivation This 

 may be so, but we all know who proverbially rush in where angels 

 fear to tread ; so I shall not be diverted by this expression of opinion 

 from offering at any rate a suggestion on the subject. 



Now I have found the name written at different periods in no less 

 than fifteen different ways, and if Hearne be right in identifying 

 Cherhill with Cherrenhull, we shall have yet another form, which 

 may perhaps throw some light upon the subject. And I may add, 

 moreover, that even if we hold Hearne to be quite wrong in this 

 theory of his, and the undoubted difficulties as to the identification 

 of Cherhill and Cherrenhull to be insurmountable, it by no means 

 follows that the Cherhill of the present day was not as much Cherren- 

 hull originally, as that other village between Abingdon and Oxford, 

 which has so strangely and unaccountably disappeared. 



Well, then, the word Kerran, or Kirran, means in Anglo-Saxon 

 to turn, and Hull means hill. Now the old road, which must from 

 very early times have been an important highway for the West of 



