BOURNE, an intermittent stream or brook frequent in chalk and limestone country where the rock becomes saturated with winter rain, that slowly drains away until the rock becomes dry, when the stream ceases. A heavy rainfall will cause streams to run in winter from the saturated soil. These are the winter bournes that have given name to several settlements upon Salis bury Plain such as Winterbourne Gunning. The "bourne" may be a permanent "burn"—a term applied to a northern constant stream. (2) (O.Fr. bourne), a boundary; the first use of the word in English is in Lord Berners's translation of Froissart's Chronicles (1523). The figurative meaning of limit or goal of a traveller comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet (1602), "the undis covered country, from whose bourne no traveller returns."