294 OKIGINAL DOCUMENTS. agree very well with the supposed application of the term to such frames used in the foundations of the bridge." The " Alluryng oure watir,^^ I understand as describing the parapet- wall on each side of the bridge. This usage of the tei'm agrees exactly with the contract for building Catterick church ; where the same word occurs several times in describing the parapets to the roofs of the choir and aisles of the church. The word Alur, which, like all other old terms, is variously spelt, pro- perly signified an alley, or walking-place, upon the roof or upper part of a building." But it was also applied to the parapet, or battlement, in front ; and was used here to describe the side-walls which guarded the passage over the bridge. A luge ^ or lodge, for the use of the masons, was to be erected by the trustees, at the bridge. It was to be constructed of wood, to contain four rooms, to be covered, and made reasonably close ; and was also to have two hen-forkes. These appurtenances to the lodge may have been, as has been suggested (see p. 61, ante), lean-to's, or pent-houses, attached to the sides of the lodge. Possibly they may have been two yards, one on each side of the lodge, inclosed with planks, to keep off intruders from inter- rupting the masons at their work ; for all the old artificers were jealous of strangers, and careful to keep their modes of working as private as possible. But if, as I suppose, the lodge served for the masons' dwelling-house, as well as the place for their work, these hen-forkes may have been two garrets, constructed in the roof of the lodge, over the four rooms which it was to contain. Such garrets were commonly called cock-lofts in old accounts, and the word is still used sometimes in country-districts. At Oxford and Cambridge cock-lofts were made in the roofs of several of the old colleges, in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., to accommodate the undei'graduates, who in earlier times had been content to rest on truckle- beds, in the same chambers with the fellows ; as we are told by Anthony a Wood and other historians. The cock-loft derived its name from such a loft being commonly the roosting-place for poultry in country houses ; hen- roost, or hen-house, are terms still in use ; and the same etymology would apply to the hcn-forke.^ If this conjecture be right, the syelles mentioned in the contract might be intended to describe the ceilings, or floors of boards, over the four rooms in the lodge ; and the hen-forkes would serve for sleeping-places for the apprentices and workmen, whilst the master- masons reposed in some of the rooms below."
- This usage of tlie word agrees also with These ladies stood upon the roofs of the
the explanation of it given in Lord Monson's castles, and looked over the battlements to MS. of 148.3. [See the reference in p. O'l behold the exercises of the knights, who were of the Journal.] That MS. was consulted in tilting and jousting below for their amuse- thc compilation of the Glossary to Specimens ment. of Goth. Archit., and is referred to under the ' The words lodgings, to lodge, lodgers, designation of MS. M. The publication of &c., arc commonly pronounced lihdginc/s, this curious Dictionary, with annotations by to ludge, ludgcrs, &c., by uneducated people an able editor, would be very useful and in some parts of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, interesting. ^ In Scotland and the north of England, ® " Upc the aliirs of the castles the laydcs poultry in general are called hens, without thannc stodc attending to the distinction of sexes. And byliulde thys noble game, and ^ Sir William Lawson suggests, in reference wyche knygts were god." to the term licn-forlce, that it may imply an Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, vol. i., open-ridgcd roof, as distinguished from ceiled 192. Edit. Ilcarnc, rooms, the timbers bearing a resemblance to
