The OS Map and an aerial photograph forming part of an ecological assessment shows Beggars Bush Field as on the south side of the lane leading from A10 (Cambridge to Ely) south of Stretham towards Red Hill Farm. Also recorded on an undated parish map.
EPNS, Cambridge, p.238 gives Begger(s)-field, 1606, 1639.
For an example of the standard romantic explanation for Beggars Bush place names, see, Harper, C. G., The Cambridge, Ely and King’s Lynn road, the great Fenland highway, Chapman Hall, London (1902) p.251
Sources
CRO Cambridge P1 47/P2
Posted: October 9th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Cambridge | No Comments »
“if a man be a tree invers’d, he’s beggar’s bush”
The usage is clearly literary, and consistent with standard literary usage. However, the form is unusual. The concept goes back to Aristotle History of Animals, “Man is an inverted tree, and a tree is an inverted man”. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: April 24th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Cambridge, John Cleveland, Literary | No Comments »
Philip Saunders, Principal Archivist at Cambridgeshire Archives tells me:
“The Isleham Beggars’ Bush appears on a map of the estate of John Buller Esq of c.1787-1806 (Cambs Archives, 311/P1). It is on a byway in the former open fields, apparently east of the surviving road about half-way between Isleham and Chippenham, west of Freckenham (Suffolk), and is marked by a small tree in elevation. It is not so marked on the OS 1:2500 of the 1880s or 1901 (Cambs XXXVI.3) and appears to have disappeared as a name . . . Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: April 24th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Cambridge, Isleham, derog | No Comments »
Thomas Heywood is significant because he does not use Beggars Bush when he might have done, but he does associate beggars with bushes. This song appears to be the source or have a common source with, a later ballad Londons Ordinary which does refer to Beggars Bush.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: March 19th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Cambridge, Coldharbour, Francis Beaumont, Francis Kirkman, John Taylor, London, Londons Ordinary, Saxton, Southwark, St Giles, derogatory, pubs | No Comments »
