Page:Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race.djvu/283

Rh was also land or a place close to this ford which in this charter is named Eoccene, and centuries later, in a charter of Eadwy, is called Occene. The river Ock flows into the Thames at Abingdon, but the Eoccene, or Occene, mentioned in these last-named charters was certainly close to the west side of Oxford. The proof of this is seen in following a set of boundaries of land given to Abingdon Abbey by Ceadwalla. These boundaries are passed as we proceed up the river from Sandford to the lower or old mouth of the Cherwell, up that river a short distance, round an old river island, down the other side of it again into the Thames, then up the river again, and further up the east side of a triangular or forked island which still exists on the west of Oxford, and down with the stream on its northern side into the main stream of the Thames again, and so on again up the river past Eoccene, the later Oseney, to Eoccen-ford. As there was only one river Cherwell, there can be no doubt that these boundaries lay close to Oxford. The mouth of the Cherwell is now changed by a new cut, but we can still stand on the west bank of the Thames north of the gasworks at Oxford, and see the water flowing along the north side of the forked island into the river, as described in Ceadwalla’s charter at the end of the seventh century. This subject has been fully discussed by the present writer in a series of articles on the origin of the place-name Oxford. Eoccen-ford is the earliest form of that name. The charter of Ceadwalla in which it occurs contains internal evidence of its authenticity, and that Eoccen-ford was on the west side of Oxford is proved independently by the later charter of Eadwy. Many instances have been referred to in which streams have been named, both in Germany and England, after people settled along them. The supposition is that in North Berkshire and part of Oxfordshire there was a colony or tribe of people who bore the name Eocce, after whom the Ock River, the stream