PLACE AND FIELD NAMES OF DERBYSHIRE. 71 
might be distinguished. This operation was attended with a 
great deal of difficulty and excitement ; and on many rivers the 
day in question was kept as one of the chief annual holidays of 
the neighbourhood. From the earliest times there seems to have 
been a weir across the Derwent at Milford, and this spot would 
naturally be chosen, as there would be an exit for the excited 
swans in only one direction. Strong crooks attached to long 
poles, called “ swan-hooks,” were used to assist in their capture. 
The term “swan-hopping” is a corruption of “ swan-fping,”’ 
that is, the taking ~f of the swans to mark them. Various other 
vague derivations have been suggested, but that this is the correct 
one is abundantly proved from a rare quarto tract printed in 
1570. In the eighth “order” it says that, “It is ordained that 
every Owner that hath any Swans, shall pay every yeare for every 
Swan-Mark, foure pence to the Master of the Game for his fee, 
and his dinner and supper free on the Ufping daies.” By the 
fourteenth order, “it is ordained that no person take wf any 
Cignet unmarked, but that the King’s Swan-herd be present ;” 
and in the fifteenth we read “that the Swan-herds of the Duchie 
of Lancaster shall ~ no Swannes, or make any sale of them, 
_ without the Master of the Swannes be present.’”’ From this it is 
evident that the term * “upping” came to signify the actual 
marking of these birds. 
CocKsSHEAD, COCKWELL, COCKBRIDGE, and CocKSHUT, 
together with HeNMorE, HeENsHaw (T.C., Stretton), HENCLOSE, 
and HENLow, appear at first sight to refer without any 
doubt to domestic poultry. Certain etymologists would, how- 
ever, make both these suffixes to be of Celtic origin, from 
coch, red, and from fen, old; but when the terminations of 
the names just enumerated are taken into consideration, it would 
hardly be warrantable to claim their Celtic descent except in the 
‘case of Hentow. The prefix ex is of frequent occurrence in 
Cornwall, Hereford, and Monmouth ; but in these cases it is 
» 
4, 
_ **¢The Order for Swannes, both by the Statutes, & by the Anncient orders 
and customes used within the Realme of England.” This is quoted in 
full by Hone in the Every Day Book.—Gentleman’s Magazine, 1793. 
7 
