The beech trees which are also a feature in the neighbourhood of Boxhill irresistibly turn one’s mind to the immortal beeches at Burnham in Bucks. Bucks supposedly derives its name from the patronymic Bucca or Bucco, and this district was thus presumably a seat of the Bucca, Pukka, or Puck King, alias Auberon, to whom at Burnham the beech or boc would appear to have been peculiarly dedicated. There is a Burnham near Brightlingsea; a Burnby near Pocklington, a Burnham on the river Brue, a Burn in Brayton parish, Yorks; a river Burn or Brun in Lancashire, a river Burry in Glamorganshire, and in Norfolk a Burnham-Ulph. In Brancaster Bay are what are termed “Burnham Grounds”; hereabouts are Burnham Westgate, Burnham Deepdale, Burnham Overy, etc., and the local fishermen maintain “there are three other Burnhams under Brancaster Bay”.[399] Doubtless the sea has claimed large tracts of Oberon’s empire, but from Brean Down, Brown Willy, and Perran Round in the West to the famous Birrenswerk in Annandale, and the equally famous Bran Ditch in Cambridgeshire, the name of the Tall Man is ubiquitous. Among the innumerable Brandons or Branhills, Brandon Hill in Suffolk, where the flint knappers have continued their chipping uninterruptedly since old Neolithic times, may claim an honourable pre-eminence.
FOOTNOTES:
[323] Cf. Thomas, J. J., Brit. Antiquissima, p. 29.
[324] Hone, W., Everyday Book, i., 502.
[325] Squire, C., Mythology of Ancient Britain and Ireland, p. 52.
[326] Hazlitt, W. Carew, Faiths and Folklore, ii., 338.
[327] Cf. Johnson, W., Folk Memory, p. 143.
[328] Among the many Prestons I have enquired into is one with which I am conversant near Faversham. Here the Manor House is known as Perry Court; similarly there is a Perry Court at a second Preston situated a few miles distant. In the neighbourhood are Perry woods. There is a modern “Purston” at Pontefract, which figured in Domesday under the form “Prestun”.
[329] Taylor, Rev. T., Celtic Christianity of Cornwall, p. 33.
[330] Courtney, Miss M. L., Cornish Feasts and Folklore, p. 123.