Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/132

94 from Newenden, passed between the upland and Romney Marsh, falling into the sea at or near the present town of Hithe, thus forming the Roman "Portus Lemanis." (See this question discussed or noticed repeatedly in Holloway's History of Romney Marsh, 8vo, London, 1849.) A name identical with that of the Saxon Chronicle, "Limenaea," occurs in several documents preserved in Kemble's (Cod. Dipl.), where, from the connection, no other river than that above mentioned can be signified. The earliest of these allusions is A.D. 700 or 715. But the identity, now contended for, appears to be established by two deeds, temp. K. Edward I and K. Edward II, quoted by Mr. Holloway, in which, at that (comparatively) late date, the river is called the "Limene." The first, A.D. 1277, concerning the "Borough of Mayfield," contains the following sentence; "Martinus de Webb tenet quartam partem unius rodæ apud la Limene et debet quadrantem ad festum S. Michaelis—Martin Webb holds the fourth part of a rod on the Limene, and owes a farthing at the festival of St. Michael," (ut sup. 83.) The second deed is the appointment, 14th of K. Edward II, or A.D. 1320, of John de Ifeld, John de Malemeyns of Hoo, and Rich. de Echinham to inspect the marshes between the towns of Apuldre and Robertsbridge on each side of the river Limene. Consult the Note upon Midhurst, Sussex, for another Rother in that county.

Gibson imagines (Chron. Sax. Nominum locorum caplicatio, 38) that Hæestenus' fort was at Middleton in Essex, in which county the only place of that name I find mentioned is a parish, which is stated to lie "about a mile south-east from Sudbury" (Morant's Essex, II, 275), that is, on the border of the river Stour, which divides Essex from Suffolk: so that the locality will by no means answer for the spot intended in the Saxon Chronicle. If from the expression "the mouth of the Thames" we must seek a place on that river above the junction of the Medway, Milton near Gravesend may be suggested, whereabouts the Thames begins to expand in width. In (D.B.) that place certainly is called "Meletune," while Milton near Sittingbourne is "Mideltune;" but the spelling was so arbitrary and variable in those times, that no conclusion can safely be drawn from such premises. However the subjoined quotation will show, that the opinion of Kilburne, from what evidence he states not, was in favour of the last named Milton, wherein I am disposed to agree with him. "Hasting, the Danish Pirat (in the year 893) fortified a Castle at