Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/126

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Dcoon Notes and Qumes. 85 known as Knackers Knowle; and in Polwhele's Cornwall (I, 77), is called " Nacker's hole.*' A place called

    • Narkurs *' (6 miles from Liskeard) is mentioned in the

Cornwall Directory. These seem to point to the same meanii]^ as that of the Honiton sign, which apparently was so named from its proximity to the knackers' yard. Local enquiries have, however, failed to corroborate this suggestion or to throw any light upon its origin. While on this subject, it may not be amiss to draw attention to a few local signs recorded by authors, but which have now disappeared. The Barnstaple Inn^ in St. David's parish, is noted in the London Chronicle of April 6, 1765 ; and is also recorded in Brice and Co.'s Old Exeter Journal^ March 10, 1791. In the latter paper of the same year (Aug. 25) is reported a meeting of creditors at the Oakhampton Inn^ in St. Thomas* parish. According to Jenkins {Hist, of Exeter, 1806, 359), the Falcon Inn stood '< near the scite of the ancient Northgate," where there was a cold bath, supplied by a fine spring, that issued "from under the City walls." In 1880 Mr. J. Jerman described the re-discovery of this spring during some excavations for buildings. In his Social History of the Sonlhem Connties^ Mr. Roberts relates the particulars of an interview he had with a very old woman, whose father had kept packhorses, and who, mistaking him for a carrier, -* warmly recommended, as a house where I should find good treatment, The Rolling Pin, Chopping Knife, Exeter." Neither of these signs are mentioned in Larwood's work, and possibly there may be some error in the double title ; it may, however, be noted that there is yet remaining (at least there was in 1868) an Inn in Honiton called the Chopping Knife. T. N. Brushfield, M.D. 60. Bridge and Caw (II, p. 18, par. 18). — Would Caw be a lapse in spelling of the word Clawa, which in old law meant a close or small enclosure. The book from which I get this word was published nearly 200 years ago. Emily Skinner.