19 MARCH 1910, Page 17

[TO THE EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR. "]

SIR,—Will you permit me to point out the impossibility that the name of the Buokinghamshire village of Wooburn should bear the meaning "Woe-bourne," as is suggested by " Bucks" in your issue of March 12th P The name is clearly identical in origin with that of the Bedfordshire Woburn, recorded in a genuine charter of 969 in the form "Wdburninga (gennere)"

Cartularium Saxonicum," 1229), and evidently representing an Old English wok burn, meaning "crooked stream."—I am,