That staunch, brave, crotchety man, Sir Harry Vane the younger (the son of Lord Strafford’s enemy), lived next door to Northumberland House, eastwards, in the Strand. The house in Charles II.’s time became the official residence of the Secretary of State, and Mr. Secretary Nicholas dwelt there, when meetings were held to found a commonwealth and put down that foolish, good-natured, incompetent Richard Cromwell. To the great Protector, Vane was a thorn in the flesh, for he wanted a republic when the nation required a stronger and more compact government. Oliver’s exclamation, “Oh, Sir Harry Vane! Sir Harry Vane!--The Lord deliver me from Sir Harry Vane!” expresses infinite vexation with an impracticable person. Vane was a “Fifth-monarchy man,” and believed in universal salvation. He must have been a good man, or Milton would never have addressed the sonnet to him in which he says-- “Therefore, on thy firm hand Religion leans In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son.” Sir Harry left behind him some very tough and dark treatises on prophecy, and other profound matters that few but angels or fools dare to meddle with. There is a foolish tradition that Charing Cross was so named originally by Edward I. in memory of his _chère reine_. Peele, one of the glorious band of Elizabethan dramatists, helped to spread this tradition. He makes King Edward say-- “Erect a rich and stately carved cross, Whereon her statue shall with glory shine; And henceforth see you call it Charing Cross. For why?--the _chariest_ and the choicest queen That ever did delight my royal eyes There dwells in darkness.”[365] The inconsolable widower, however, in spite of his costly grief, soon married again. The truth is, there are in England one or two Charings; one of them is a village thirteen miles from Maidstone. “_Ing_” means meadow in Saxon.[366] The meaning of “_Char_” is uncertain; it may be the contraction of the name of some long-forgotten landowner, “rich in the possession of dirt.”[367] The Anglo-Saxon word _cerre_--a turn (says Mr. Robert Ferguson, an excellent authority), is retained in the name given in Carlisle and other northern towns to the chares, or _wynds_--small streets. In King Edward’s time Charing was bounded by fields, both north and west. There has been a good deal of nonsense, however, written about “the pleasant village of Charing.” In Aggas’s map, published under Elizabeth, Hedge Lane (now Whitcombe Street) is a country lane bordered with fields; so is the Haymarket, and all behind the Mews up to St. Martin’s Lane is equally rural. Horne Tooke[368] derives the word Charing from the Saxon verb _charan_--to turn; but the etymology is still doubtful, however much the river may bend on its way to Westminster. However, doubtless, the place was named Charing as far back as the Saxon times.