'94
NOTES AND QUERIES.
[10 S. X. AUG. 1, 1908.
he thinks of the claims of Channing House ?
Is this really on the site of Arundel House
or of Sir William Bond's house ? Can they
all be on the same site ? Perhaps the
trustees of Channing House could tell us
something by a reference to their trust
deeds. RONALD DIXON.
46, Maryborough Avenue, Hull.
QUEEN CAROLINE (10 S. ix. 449, 495 ; x. 51). MB. DENMAN is unduly severe. I wished to give some authority in answering the query, and the only account of the charity-children story I remembered was that given in Fraser's ' Words on Welling- ton,' on the authority of Lord Redesdale. As the query stood, I considered that the extract from Fraser was a sufficient answer, although I could not add at whose instiga- tion it was that charity children were sent to insult the Queen. I have read one of the books named by MB. DENMAN, Huish's
- Trial of Queen Caroline ' ; and I now
wish I had added the final paragraphs of Lord Denman's speech. MB. DENMAN, I hope, will acquit me of any intention to " reawaken ridicule of a great and good man." R. L. MOBETON.
" COCK-FOSTEB " (10 S. x. 30). I think that the question is based upon an error in the compilation of Holden's ' Triennial Directory,' 1805-6-7. The entry is as quoted by H. J. B. : " West farmer and cock-foster, Enfield Chace." I would sug- gest, however, that by some confusion the designation of a farm-house, West Farm, has been printed as a surname and the village in which the house was and is situated, Cockfosters (or, as sometimes it appears in old maps, Cock-Fosters), has been appended as a further description to the supposititious " West, farmer."
The village of Cockfosters is on the high road from Southgate to Potter's Bar, and is on the borders of what was Enfield Chase. A house in the village is still known (or was until very lately) as West Farm, and it stands on the site of a farm-house that was there at least 85 years ago so an aunt of mine, who was born at Cockfosters in 1817, tells me.
I cannot find any instance of the term " cock-foster " with reference to cock- fighting, and do not think that there is such a word, apart from the name of the village above mentioned.
According to Elaine's ' Encyclopaedia of Rural Sports,' p. 1208 (London, 1840), the term used to designate the breeder and trainer of cocks for fighting purposes
was " cock feeder.' Blaine quotes John-
son's ' Sportsman's Dictionary,' art. Cock
Feeder,' as follows :
" A cock feeder is a person whose occupation it is to collect, handle, and feed a pen of cocks, and to fight such main or match as may be made or agreed on by those who deposit the battle money."
My great-grandfather John Ray of Finchley was a breeder and trainer of fighting cocks, but my aunt has no recollec- tion of his being known as a " cock-foster." One of my earliest recollections is that of playing with some of the silver or steel spurs that my great-grandfather used to fasten on the legs of the cocks.
WM. H. PEET.
EDWABDS OF HALIFAX (10 S. ix. 510 ; x. 54). This was William Edwards, who in 1784 established his sons James and John in Pall Mall as " Edwards & Sons." A long account of the family appears in Gent. Mag., 1816 (vol. Ixxxvi. p. 180), giving details of the important sales of libraries and valuable books passing through the firm's hands. Reference is made to the purchase of the famous Bedford Missal by Mr. James Edwards for 215 guineas, and its subsequent sale to the Marquis of Blandfordfor 687Z. 15s. The sale of the Edwards Library in 1815 is referred to in Gent. Mag., vol. Ixxxv. part i. pp. 135, 254, 349. R. S. B.
" CHABMING-BELLS " FOB BIBD-CATCHING (10 S. x. 48). Although nets were not necessarily used with charming-bells, yet the pastime seems to have been nothing more than an amateur variation of " low- belling." Lowbelling consisted in persons going out at night with a light and bell ("low"=a flame or light, as in the old North- Country word " lily-low," a comfort- less blaze*), by the light and noise of which the lowbellers procured the stupefied birds as they sat either on the ground or in the branches of trees, and either by means of a net or without. See Dugdale's ' War- wickshire ' (where, however, the custom is associated with the use of the net), p. 4.
" The day being shut in, the air mild, without moonshine, take a low-bell, which must have a deep and hollow sound, for it' it be shrill it is stark naught." ' Gentleman's Recreation,' 'Fowling,' p. 39, 8vo, quoted in Nares's ' Glossary,' 1888, p. 529. J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
- Or is "low" from the Dutch loeijen, to low or
bellow like oxen ? A low-bell, of which I imagine I possess an example, was a bell varying in size, hung about the neck of sheep and cattle ; but mine is large, exactly like the ancient monastery bell.
