lso came to seek health in the fresh air of Kensington.

The southern part of the borough is comparatively new. Within the last
sixty years long lines of houses have sprung up, concealing beneath
unpromising exteriors, such as only London houses can show, comfort
enough and to spare. This is a favourite residential quarter, though we
now consider it in, not "conveniently near," town. Snipe were shot in
the marshes of Brompton, and nursery gardens spread themselves over the
area now devoted to the museums and institute. It is rather interesting
to read the summary of John Timbs, F.S.A., writing so late as 1867:
"Kensington, a mile and a half west of Hyde Park Corner, contains the
hamlets of Brompton, Earl's Court, the Gravel Pits, and part of Little
Chelsea, now West Brompton, but the Royal Palace and about twenty other
houses north of the road are in the parish of St. Margaret's,
Westminster." He adds that Brompton has long been frequented by invalids
on account of its genial air. Faulkner, the local historian of all
South-West London, speaks of the "delightful fruit-gardens of Brompton
and Earl's Court."

The origin of the name Kensington is obscure. In Domesday Book it is
called Chenesitum, and in other ancient records Kenesitune and
Kensintune, on which Lysons comments: "Cheneesi was a proper name. A
person of that name held the Manor of Huish in Somersetshire in the
reign of Edward the Confessor." This is apparently entirely without
foundation. Other writers have attempted to connect the name with
Kings-town, with equal ill-success. The true derivation seems to be from
the Saxon tribe of the Kensings or Kemsings, whose name also remains in
the little village of Kemsing in Kent.

HISTORY.

From Domesday Book we learn that the Manor of Kensington had belonged to
a certain Edward or Edwin, a thane, during the reign of Edward the
Confessor. It was granted by William I. to Geoffrey, Bishop of
Coutances, under whom it was held by Alberic or Aubrey de Ver or Vere.
The Bishop died in 1093, and Aubrey then held it directly from the
Crown.

Aubrey's son Godefrid or Geoffrey, being under obligations to the Abbot
of Abingdon, persuaded his father to grant a strip of Kensington to the
Abbot. This was done with the consent of the next heir. The strip thus
granted became a subordinate manor; it is described as containing "2
hides and a virgate" of land, or about 270 acres. This estate was cut
right out of the original mano