Philadelphia.
_"Chair" or "Char."_--I am desirous of ascertaining the meaning of this
term, as occurring frequently in the Cambridgeshire Fens. It is variously
spelt, _chair_, _chaire_, _chare_, or _char_. In the Cambridgeshire dialect
it may be remarked, _air_ or _are_ is pronounced as "ar." Thus, _upstairs_,
_bare_, are "upstars," "bar." There is a Char Fen at Stretham, laid down in
Sir Jonah Moore's Map (1663). There is also a Chare Fen at Cottenham; and
at Littleport is a place called Littleport Chair. This last had the name at
least as early as Edward II.'s reign; as in a description of a neighbouring
fen, not later than that date, one boundary is "A le _chaire_ per
Himmingslode usque Gualslode End." A friend who has searched the documents
in the Fen Office at Ely on this subject for me, has been unable to
discover the least clue to the meaning of the term.
At Newcastle-on-Tyne, a narrow street or passage between houses is called a
_chare_; but there is nothing narrow about Char Fen, which was part of an
open common. The course of the rivers at Littleport may be imagined to form
a rude outline of a chair or seat; but this does not apply to the other
instances in which the name occurs.
There are numerous local names in the fens, of which the history may be
traced for some centuries, deserving investigation.