Kensington is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Chenesiton. Chenesi was a proper name, and “Lyson” says that in the time of Edward the Confessor a person of that name held a manor in Somersetshire. It may be that Kensington was once a town belonging to a “Chenesi.” At the time of the Romans this district comprised the northern boundary of the marshes formed by the overflowing of the Thames, Chelsea and Fulham being liable to inundation, but the higher elevation of a great portion of this parish rendered it fit for cultivation. In 1218, in the reign of Henry III., it was disafforested. Before this time it, with Paddington, had formed a portion of the Forest of Middlesex. In Henry the Eighth’s time a great portion of Notting Hill and Paddington was still forest as appears from records dated 1543. In 1610 Sir Walter Cope became possessed of the manor of St. Mary Abbot’s by a grant from the Queen. It is recorded that he died possessed of the manor called Earl’s Court, Kensyngton, with its appurtenances, in Kensyngton, Chelsey, Hammersmith and St. Margaret’s, Westminster. Two hundred acres belonging to the Ould House Kensyngton and all that wood called Notting Wood or Knotting Wood, for which he paid as under:— Manor of Abbot’s £5 0 0 per ann. Earl’s Court 2 0 0 ,, Ould House and land 5 0 0 „ Knotting wood 1 0 0 ,, St. Margaret’s Westminster 1 0 0 ,, The Kensington division of the hundred of Ossulstan includes Fulham, Hammersmith, Chiswick, Acton, part of Brentford, Ealing, Willesden and Chelsea. The name of the hundred is probably derived from the German word Waassel which signifies water. Others suggest Ousel, a bird, Ossultun, a town noted for its birds. AGRICULTURE AND GARDENING. Fifty years ago the greater portion of Kensington and Paddington was under cultivation for corn, market gardening, nurseries and grass land. It would appear from ancient records that in past time the temperature of England must have been much higher than at present, for we read of vineyards and of wine being produced in very large quantities. Of those vineyards, especially about Brompton, there are many records. “Bewick” writes of a spot of ground called Brompton Park as being famed all over the kingdom for the growth of plants, and adds the stock is so large that if reckoned only at a penny each plant the whole value would be above £40,000. PADDINGTON in the time of Edgar was given to the monks of Westminster at the cost of two hides of land. As the value of a hide of land in Henry the First’s time was 3/-, the monks had a good bargain. The name is of doubtful derivation, Pad may mean a path or a robber. It may also mean a saddle. The place may have been infested by robbers, or it may have been a place where travellers stopped to bait their horses and “re-padded.” Pope Nicolas IV. gave the whole proceeds of the manor of Paddington to the poor.