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Chiltern|ˈtʃɪltən|
Also 6 chylturne, chiltorne, 8 chilturn.
[Ciltern occurs as a proper name in the OE. Chron. anno 1009; but also, since 16th c., applied to a kind of soil or country. This may be from the proper name, though the converse is also possible; at present no explanation of the word is known.]
1. Proper name of a range of hills, in some parts wooded, which extend from the south of Oxfordshire, near Wallingford, quite across Buckinghamshire into Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.
a1125O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1009 Ða æfter middan wintra hi namon þa ænne upgang ut þurh Ciltern, and swa to Oxneforda. 1747Carte Hist. Eng. I. 483 The woodlands on the edge of Bucks and Hertfordshire, called the Chiltern.
2. Chiltern Hundreds: a name given to five (or more strictly four and a half) hundreds in Oxfordshire, and three in Buckinghamshire, which contain the Chiltern Hills. The manorial rights of these belonged to the Crown, which appointed over them Stewards and Bailiffs. These offices have long been obsolete or merely nominal, but that of the three Buckinghamshire hundreds (Stoke, Desborough, and Burnham) is the best known of several fictitious offices, now used for a special purpose. No member of parliament is by law at liberty to resign his seat, so long as he is duly qualified; on the other hand, a member who accepts an office of profit under the Crown must vacate his seat, subject to re-election. A member desiring to resign therefore applies for the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds, or other similar appointment, which is, by a legal figment, held to be such an office; the appointment necessitates his resignation, and, having thus fulfilled its purpose, is again resigned, so as to be ready for conferment upon the next member that wishes to make the same use of it.
The holding of an office of profit under the Crown became a disqualification in 1707. It was not till 1740 that the Stewardship of a royal manor was used in order to create a disqualification. In that year Sir Watkin Wynn took the Stewardship of H. M. Lordship and Manor of Bromfield and Yale (which was again taken in 1749). In 1742 Ld. Middlesex took the Head Stewardship of H. M. Honour of Otford in Kent. In Jan. 1750-51 John Pitt, M.P. for Wrexham, took the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds, which has come to be the ordinary form, except when a second resignation takes place before this is vacant.
c1260Rot. Hund. I. 22/2 Aria hundreda Ciltrie sunt in manu domini Regis, scilicet Dosteberge, Stokes & Burnham. 1653Parl. Survey, Bucks No. 4 (MS. Recd. Off.) A Survey of the Rents, issues, and profitts of the three Hundreds commonly called or knowne by the name of y⊇ Three Hundreds of Chilturne, with y⊇ Courts and Bayliwick thereunto belonging..within y⊇ county of Bucks, parcell of the possessions of Charles Stuart late King of England, made and taken by us whose names are hereunto subscribed. 1751Entry in Journal of Ho. Comm., Who since his election..hath accepted the Office of Steward or Bailiff of H. M.'s Three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Bonenham in the County of Buckingham. 1763Brit. Mag. IV. 276 Norborne Berkley, Esq. steward of the manor of the three Chiltern Hundreds. 1781Hatsell Precedents (1818) II. 55. 1817 Evans Parl. Deb. I. 1303 A representative of the city of London, in the room of Harvey Combe, Esq. who had accepted the Chiltern Hundreds. 1844May Parl. Practice 340. 1883 Ibid. 709. 1888 Newspr., ‘If he doubts it, let him apply for the Chiltern Hundreds, and present himself for re-election.’
3. a. and n. Applied to a kind of soil, and to districts having this soil: see quots.
1523Fitzherb. Husb. B j, There be many maner of groundes and soyles. Some whyte cley, some redde cley, some grauell or chylturne. a1640Jackson Creed xii. x, Agar or Sinai is not such a general name of the whole mountain country in Arabia as wold or chiltern is in English. 1669Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 13 Compare such Counties and Places in England, that are for the most part upon Enclosure, with the Champion or Chilterne Counties or Places. 1750W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman II. i. 27 Hertfordshire in general, most part of Kent, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Berkshire, Wiltshire, and many other counties abounding in chalky, sandy, gravelly, and loamy soils, are deservedly called Chilturn countries, as being of a short dry nature, and lying in dry situations. Ibid. (title of Vol. VI) Chiltern and Vale Farming explained. |