The Records in the various Public Record Offices are open to all; and to those Officers of the Rolls’ Chapel, the Tower, and Carlton Ride, as well as those at the British Museum, who kindly assisted me by directing my search for facts relative to Paddington, my best thanks are due. I am also indebted to several kind friends for advice and assistance, during the progress of this Work through the Press. Mr. B. H. Smart, the well-known English scholar, kindly suggested to me, some time since, the possibility of the word _Paddington_ being derived from _Padre ing tun_, _the Father’s town-meadow_; and Sir Harry Dent Goring, of Bayswater House, was so good as to suggest another derivation, which I think it right to acknowledge in this place. In a note Sir Harry writes to me on this subject, he says, “A Pad is a Sussex word now in common use for Pack-Horse * * * ings we have in that county by hundreds. Now, the carriers to the great City may have lodged, and had meadows for their Pack-Horses here. I humbly suggest, therefore, may not Paddington mean _the Village at the Pack-Horse Meadows_?” It is to Dr. R. G. Latham I am indebted for pointing out to me Mr. Kemble’s opinion as the most probable origin of this word. With these additional remarks I must leave the decision of this question, of the origin of the name, to those learned linguists and antiquarians who desire to enter more deeply into the subject. I regret not having been able to spend more time, than I have done, in researches for this Sketch; but I hope my efforts to discover facts, relative to Paddington, have not been so fruitless as to render this attempt entirely undeserving the attention of the inhabitants of this parish. The only apology I can offer to my readers for the faults in the Work, is, that the facts were sought out, and the ideas jotted down, in moments snatched from the performance of more important and more harassing duties. Should any one wish to know how it ever entered my head to give my friends and myself so much trouble, the reason is readily told: