name of Chenesi — a family so called having
been found living in Somersetshire, in the reign
of Edward the Confessor. Another ancient
authority writes the word Chensnetun.
Temptations to etymology are great; and as the
Chenesi family was probably the same as the
modern Cheynès or Cheyneys, and Cheyne
comes from the old French word chesne (oak),
and Chensnet might have been chesne-nut or
chestnut (oak and chestnut — chastain — having
possibly the same root in French, and their
timber, of which London was built, possessing
a good deal in common), Saxon and Norman
antiquaries might be led into much pleasant
dispute as to the regal or woodland origin of
the word Kensington — whether the oak and
chestnut trees, which still have representatives
in the district, were the occasion of the
name, or whether some Saxon prince — Alfred,
for instance, who was the rebuilder of
London —going some fine morning to look at his
woodcutters, and considering how good the
soil was, and how fresh the western wind
upon his brow, chose to set up a summer-lodge
there, in which to recreate his profound
thoughts, and benefit the health which he was
ruining for his country.

Whatever was the origin of its name, there
is no doubt that the first inhabited spot of
Kensington was an enclosure from the great
Middlesex forest that once occupied this side
of London, and which extended northwards
as far as Barnet. The woody nature of a
portion of the district is implied in a passage
in Doomsday Book; and records exist which
show that forest-trees were abundant in it as
late as the time of Henry the Eighth. The
overflowings of the Thames, to which Chelsea
and Hammersmith were then subject, stopped
short of the higher ground of Kensington;
there was no great road through it till
comparatively modern times, the only highway
for travellers westward being the old Roman
or present Uxbridge road, then bending
southerly (as it still branches) to Turnham
Green; and thus we are to picture to
ourselves the future royal suburb as consisting
of half-a-dozen rustical tenements of swine-
herds and other foresters, clustering about
the homestead of the chieftain, or speculator,
whoever he was, that first cleared away a
spot in that comer. By degrees dairymen
come, and ploughmen; then vine-growers;
and the first Norman proprietor we hear of
is a bishop—

"Albericus de Ver tenet de episcopo
Constantiensi Chenesit(um)."

Aubrey de Vere holds Kensington of the
Bishop of Constance.

So writes Doomsday Book. Constance is
Coutances in Normandy; and the bishop,
who was probably anything but a reverend
personage in the modern sense of the epithet,
but a stalwart, jolly fellow, clad in arms cap-
à-pie, was also Grand Justiciary of England
— that is to say, one whose business it was to
do injustice to Englishmen, and see their
goods and chattels delivered over to his
countrymen, the Normans. Accordingly, to
set a good legal example, the Justiciary seizes
upon this manor of Kensington, which
belonged, it seems, to one " Edward," a name
which signifies Happy Keeper. So, Happy
Keeper (unless detained to keep the pigs),
makes the best of his way off, blessing this
delightful bishop and judge, whose office it
is to oust proprietors; aiid he is perhaps
stripped and murdered, somewhere about
Notting Hill, by his Lordship's chaplain.*

The De Veres, however, who afterwards
gave twenty Earls of Oxford to the English
peerage, were not long in becoming absolute
possessors of the manor of Kensington; and
they held it, directly or indirectly, from the
time of the Conqueror nearly up to that of
James the First. It is doubted, nevertheless,
whether they ever resided there; though
there was a mansion belonging to them, which
occupied a site near the present Holland
House, and which is still represented by a
kind of remnant of a successor. We shall
have more to say of the family by and by.

But whatever was the importance of the
district as the possession of a race of nobles,
it obtains no distinct or certain image in the
mind of the topographer, till Holland House
itself makes its appearance; which was not
till the reign of James the First, when it was
built by Sir Walter Cope, who had purchased
the estate towards the close of the reign
preceding. A succession of noble and other
residents, of whom we shall have to speak,
and who have rendered it one of the most
interesting objects in the neighbourhood of
London, soon brought shops and houses
about it; Campden House, the seat of Lord
Campden, arose not long after Holland House;
the healthiness and fashion of the place
attracted other families of distinction; and
its importance was completed when King
William bought the house and grounds of the
Finch family (Earls of Nottingham), and
converted the house into a palace, and the
grounds into royal gardens. Holland House,
Campden House, Kensington House, the
Square, the Palace, and the Gardens, are the
six oldest objects of interest in Kensington;
and lively and abundant are the memorials
they have left us.

But newer creations possess their interest
also, up to the latest period; and it may be
said, without the usual hazards attending
prefatory commendation, that in comparison
with " Kingly Kensington," as Swift called
it, every other suburb of London, however
interesting in its degree, is but as the strip
of garden before one of its houses, compared
with Kensington Gardens themselves during
the height of their season.

We begin our perambulation, as proposed,
on the side next the metropolis; we should

* For the crimes and iniquities of the military churchmen
who came over with William of Normandy, see
Thierry's History of the Conquest — passim.