2"! S. VI. 148., Oct. 30. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



345 



Psalmist, 'Dilexi qaoniam exaudibit,' I love my lord bo- 

 cause he hath heard me." 



"To the right Honourable S' Jo. Popham, 



Knight, Lo. Chief Justice of England, Sieants Inne." 



ETYMOLOGY OF " COCKSHUT " AND " COCKSHOOT." 



How are these words allied ? Or are they allied 

 at all ? And what is their derivation ? C'ockshut 

 is defined by Johnson to mean " the close of tlie 

 evening, at which time poultry go to roost." This 

 is by no means a clear etymology. In Richard 

 III; Act V. Sc. 3., we have " much about cock- 

 shut time." Steevens, in a note on this passage, 

 quotes the following authorities : Ben Jonson, 

 " in the cockshut light," " a fine cockshut even- 

 ing," " in the twilight cockshut light ; " Dame 

 Juliana Berners, wlio says, " frette him faste with 

 a cokeshote corde ; " and an anonymous tract-wri- 

 ter, who writes " to watch a cocke-shoote, or a 

 limed bush." 



Now, surely all these passages cannot illustrate 

 the same word ! Cockshtd, as applied to a time of 

 the day, seems to be one word, and cochshoot 

 another word, having some reference to bird- 

 catching (woodcocks ?). The other day I fell in 

 with a passage where the word cockslwot seems to 

 be used in a sense allied to that intended by Dame 

 Juliana Berners and the anonymous tract-writer 

 quoted by Steevens. The passage is in The Bos- 

 cohel Tracts, edited by J. Hughes, 1858, an 8vo. 

 volume of reprints of old tracts and literature re- 

 lating to the escape of King Charles II. In Bosco- 

 bel, written by Tbos. Blount, is a description of the 

 battle of Worcester, and the following sentence 

 occurs : — 



" At this time Cromwell was settled in an advantageous 

 post at Perrywood, having rais'd a breastwork at the 

 cochshoot of the wood for his greater security." 



The sand-hill lying to the south of the town of 

 Reigate, over which hill the old Brighton road 

 passes, is called Cockshut or Cockshot Hill. In 

 maps the word is spelt both ways; but maps are 

 very fallible guides in such matters, for the sur- 

 veyor is at the mercy of those of whom he inquires 

 the names of places, and he has not always the 

 means of testing the accuracy with which names 

 are pronounced. 



Whatever the cochshoot of a wood may be, — 

 and this I seek to have explained, — it seems that 

 the hill near Reigate, to which I have alluded, 

 must owe its name to that local term ; for the 

 estate on ihc southern slope of the hill is called 

 Woodhutch, and this estate is bounded by a com- 

 mon, at the foot of the hill, named Earlswood 

 Common. No trace of the Earl's ^\'ood now 

 exists, but Wood-Aate/t evidently refers lo the 

 gale which formed one entrance to it, and the 

 cochnhoot appears to liave been another. Jatdek. 



THE CHA3IBER OF " I.ITXr.E EASE:" KASDLE 

 HOLME. 



Dr. Lingard, in his account of the different 

 kinds of torture used in the Tower in the times 

 of the Tudors, says : — 



" A fourth kind of torture was a cell called ' Little Ease.' 

 It was of so small dimensions and so constructed that the 

 prisoner could neither stand, sit, nor lie in it at full length. 

 He was compelled to draw himself up in a squatting pos- 

 ture, and so remained during several davs." — History of 

 England, vol. viii. note G, p. 421, 4th edit., 1838. 



Randle Holme tells us there was a similar place 

 at Chester, where it was used for the punishment 

 of petty offences; and according to his quaint de- 

 scription of it, with such effect as to make one 

 think it might usefully be revived in these days. 

 It is remarkable that he had never heard of 

 the "• Little Ease " in the Tower : — 



"Like to this [the Stocks of which he had just given a 

 description ] there is another like place of Punishment in 

 our House of Correction in Chester (the like to it I have 

 not heard in any other place) it is called the -A. ittlc C5a^f , 

 a place cut into a Rock, with a Grate Door before it; into 

 this place are put Penegadoes, Apprentices, &c. that dis- 

 obey their Parents and Masters, Robbers of Orchards, and 

 such like Rebellious Youths; in which they can neither 

 Stand, Sit, Kneel, nor lie down, but be all in a ruck, or 

 knit together, so and in such a Lamentable Condition, 

 that half an hour will tame the Stoutest and Stubbornest 

 Stomach, and will make him have a desire to be freed 

 from the place." — The Academy of Armory and Blazon, 

 b. in. c. vii. No. 91. p. 312. 



Does either of these places exist now, and were 

 there any others ? 



May I ask, too, whether anything particular is 

 known of Handle Holme ? The compiler of such 

 a marvellous farrago as the Academy of Armory 

 and Blazon must have been a remarkable man. 



David 6am. 



[Randle Holme, the author of The Academic of Ar- 

 mory, was Sewer of the Chamber in Extraordinary to 

 Charles II. He followed the employment of his father 

 and grandfather, and was deputy to Garter for Cheshire, 

 Lancashire, Shropshire, and North Wales; but previous 

 to this appointment had attracted the notice of Sir Wil- 

 liam Dugdale by the irregularity of his proceedings, who 

 prosecuted him at the Stafford Assizes, 20 Car. II., for 

 marshalling the funeral of Sir Ralph Ashton, and ob- 

 tained a verdict against him, with 20/. damages. He was 

 buried at St. Mary's, Chester, March 15, 1699-70, For a 

 pedigree of his family, see Ormerod's Cheshire, ii 253.] 



^I'nar cattcn'csi. 



Lyomi, Depidy Clerk of the Council. — In a 

 work entitled Grand Juries of West Meath, and 

 printed at Ledestown in 1853, the brother of Col. 

 Lyons of Ledestown, 1776, is thus described : — 



" Henry Lyons of the Mount, Deputy Clerk of the 

 Council, and Deputy Master-General, died in Dublin." 



If any of your Dublin correspondents can give 

 information as to the time of death of this indivi- 



