526
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. DEC. so, 1911.
" COCKROD " : " COCKSHOOT." In the
- N.E.D.' the word cock-road, -rood, obs., is
stated to be synonymous with cockshoot. The earliest instances quoted are of 1648 : " Thou hast thy cockrood, and thy glade To take the precious phesant made," and "The net caught many a woodcock, untill the said Aldermen and Sir John Maynard broke through it, and spoyled the cockroad." From
- Chambers' s Cyclopaedia ' the explanation
is quoted that straight " roads " were cut, about 40 ft. broad, through woods or thickets, and nets tied to two opposite trees for the taking of woodcocks ; and the definitions given by Kersey and by Bailey, identifying the cockroads with the nets themselves, instead of with the clearings, are cited as " erroneous."
Having come upon a much earlier in- stance of the word cockrod than the above, in Ministers' Accounts, Hen. VIII., No. 6934, at the Record Office, I think the extracts containing it may be of interest, the more so as the context would seem to demand an alteration or expansion of the inter- pretations offered by the ' JST.E.D.,' since it would seem to suggest that the cockrod was a certain fixed measure or quantity of land, and if so, that the second element in the word was really a rod = pole or perch, rather than road or way. Here, then, are the extracts :
" 7-8 Hen. VIII. [1515] Hundredum de Southaunton [rectius South TaAvton] : [Burgus de] Sele : Comp'tus Ric'i Frende, P'pos' ib'm :
"Exit Man'ii : Et de iiij d de firma ij
Cokrod' terr', ib'm, sic' dimiss' Joh'i Gydeley hoc anno, tamen nup' ad ix 1 ' p. ann., ut pz in comp'us p'ceden'.
Ibid., " 8-9 Hen. VIII. [1516] et de iiij d de
firma ij Cokrod' terr', ib'm, sicut dimiss' Joh'ni Gydeley hoc anno."
The notion that cockrod may have meant a certain quantity of land engenders the suspicion that a similar meaning might have originally attached to the term cockshoot, and that the last syllable might have signified, as in accord with its older spelling, a shot, or apportionment of land perhaps a traot in which woodcock and other winged game (which, from very early times, were ranked with "beasts of chase") abounded or were preserved.
But the 'N.E.D.' defines cockshoot, obs., as a broad way or glade in a wood, through which woodcocks, &c., might dart or shoot, so as to be caught by nets stretched across the opening; and this is supported by a quotation of 1587, in which a holed stone, through which evil spirits were sup- posed to be driven, is compared to a
cockeshot. After Palsgrave's definition, 1530,
" Cockesshote to take wodcockes with,
uolee," the next later instances of the word
cited are of 1601 and 1651 ; but in the com-
bination " cockeshotecorde " it is shown to
occur as early as 1496.
The topographical instances mentioned in the ' N.E.D.' may be supplemented by the following :
" John Oade, Gent., holdeth on messuage or tenement called Woodhatch .... lying at the foot of Cockshot Hill." MS. Survey of the Manor of Reigate, at the Priory Estate Office, 21 Jas. I. (1623).
" There are no streams passing through the Hundred [of Swanborough] except a rivulet called the Cockshoot or Cockshut, which, rising in the parish of Kingston, washes the walls of the ruined monastery of Lewes, and debouches into the Ouse, to S. of that town." Sussex Archceological Soc. Coll., vol. xxix. p. 127.
ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES.
[PROF. SKEAT had a long note on the subject at 10 S. i. 121, followed by replies on pp. 195, 232 of the same volume.]
SMOOTH OB PRICKLY HOLLY. " Which is best to like ? " was once a yearly question in an old village I well know. The old vicar and his wife the latter taking special interest in the church decoration admitted both, but kept the smooth from the altar portion of the church, and used both for other parts. The villagers used both, but when a lot was brought to the house, the wife took good care that the first portion which came in should be non-prickly, for it would ensure that she would be master in it all the coming year. If only prickly holly came in the home, the " mester " would remain master. It was best to have some of both kinds. THOS. RATCLIFFE.
Worksop.
COURT LEET : MANOR COURT. (See 10 S. vii. 327, 377; viii. 16, 93, 334, 413.) The winter meeting of the Hampstead Manor Court was held on 12 December at " Jack Straw's Castle," followed by the customary lunch at this famous hostelry. From a very interesting account given in The Hampstead and Highgate Express, we learn that the usual quaint formalities were duly observed. The foreman of the " jury " stated that the first bonfire on the Heath was an annual event certainly prior to 1850, when an effort to stop it was made by the Lord of the Manor apparently without success. A bonfire was also lighted on The Battery when King William IV. visited the Earl of Mansfield at Ken Wood. Reference was made to the old parish stocks which formerly
