2° d S. IX. April 14. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



289 



" Cock an Eye" (2 nd S. viii. 461.)— I am in the 

 same situation as Me. Eastwood, at whose ex- 

 planation of this phrase I have just " cocked my 

 eye." Not having read Mrs. Stowe's work, I 

 have not the benefit of the context to guide me in 

 offering an answer to the Query. " To cock," 

 however, may be generally defined as " to turn 

 up." Thus, a horse is sometimes said to cock his 

 ears, or his tail. I do not here intend any allu- 

 sion to a " cocktail" horse, or one in the slightest 

 degree removed from thoroughbred. Dresser 

 seems to be the corresponding French word ; and 

 as that is said to originate in direxare, or dirigere, 

 Mr. Eastwood may have authority for the sy- 

 nonym " direct." But to my mind, " to cock " 

 conveys a more especial meaning than " to direct." 

 It seems to imply a knowing expression, as when 

 one says : " I say, old fellow, do you see any green 

 in my eye?" Ash defines, to cock — " to strut," 

 to "walk proudly." Again, a cocked hat is a hat 

 of which the brim is turned up. A cock of hay is 

 hay turned up into a heap. I am not quite pre- 

 pared to admit that "cock-eyed" means, gene- 

 rally, " squint-eyed ;" though the term may be 

 applicable to a description of squint in which the 

 axis of the eye is directed upwards. The view of 

 Mr. Eastwood may derive some support from a 

 song, which used to be sung by the late Charles 

 Matthews, beginning : 



" Manager Street was four feet high, 

 And he looked very fine when he cocked his eye, 

 For he squinted just so " 



accompanied by the ludicrous illustration of a 

 powerful squint with both eyes inwards, or to- 

 wards the nose. It may be supposed, however, 

 that the squint thus caricatured by the singer was 

 intended as the habitual position of the manager's 

 eye-balls ; and if so, he must indeed have looked 

 " very fine," as may be easily imagined, when he 

 attempted to cock them, or in other words to give 

 them an unusual direction. R. S. Q. 



King Bladud and his Pigs (2" d S. ix. 45. 110.) 

 — The following epigram on the " Bristol Hogs," 

 is by the Rev. Mr. Groves of Claverton : — 



,; When Bladud once espied some Hogs 

 Lie wallowing in the steaming bogs, 

 Where issue forth those sulphurous springs 

 Since honor'd by more poteut kings, 

 Yex'd at the brutes alone possessing 

 What ought t' have been a common blessing, 

 He drove them thence in mighty wrath, 

 And built the stately Town of liatli. 

 The ilogs thus banished by their Prince, 

 Have liv'd in Bristol ever since." 



Clammild. 

 Athenx-um Club. 



" Walk tour Chalks" (2 nd S. ix. G3. 152.) — 

 A wry simple explanation of this expression may 

 I. 1 believe that certain ale-house fre- 

 quenters, when they have been drinking long 



enough to make a boast of being sober, and to 

 dispute the point with each other, will chalk a 

 long straight line on the ground, and then en- 

 deavour one after the other to walk upon it with- 

 out swerving to right or left. Those who succeed 

 are adjudged to be sober, i. e. to have "walked 

 their chalks." 



A witness on a trial in Buckinghamshire, about 

 the year 1841, made use of this expression, and a 

 barrister immediately explained it in the above 

 manner to the puzzled court. 



This " walking the chalks" is, however, not pe- 

 culiar to Bucks, and may be witnessed in London. 



Addressed to a person whose company is no 

 longer desired, as cited by your correspondent 

 C. J., the expression "walk your chalks" would 

 thus mean, " walk straight off." . T. E. S. 



True Blue '(2 nd S. iii. 329. 513.)— In Stuart's 

 Lays of the Deer Forest, Edinburgh, 1848, 12mo. 

 (vol. ii. p. 383.), is a note on this expression, from 

 which it appears that blue was adopted by the 

 Covenanters in distinction from red, which was 

 the colour of the king's party. The writers of the 

 note referred to suppose the Covenanters to have 

 derived their use of this colour from the precept 

 of the Mosaic law (Numbers xv. 38.), as previ- 

 ously mentioned in "N. & Q." (2 nd S. iii. 513.) 

 There seems to be no doubt that, in the language 

 of flowers, blue denoted truth or fidelity ; and it is 

 more probable that the Covenanters wore " true 

 blue " as an emblem of their fidelity to their prin- 

 ciples. L. 



Blue Blood (2 nd S. ix. 208.)— Mr. Mey rick, 

 in his excellent little book on the Church of Spain, 

 describes the distinction still kept up at Granada 

 between the "castes" of that city. Each caste, 

 there are four of them, except the lowest, has its 

 own proper cafe alameda and costume. The 

 " bluo blood, or sangre azul, is that of the old 

 families who can trace up their pedigrees beyond 

 the time of the Moorish conquest, and can prove, 

 on paper, that their ancestors during the whole 

 ' time have never married out of the order of their 

 Peers, and have never departed from la ft Ca- 

 tolica." 



Next to the blue rank the red blood. Then 

 comes the white blood. Last and lowest are the 

 black blooded unbelievers in lafv Catolica : there 

 being, however, a distinction drawn between the 

 black blood non-stinking, which flows in the veins 

 of Gentile heretics and infidels, and that black 

 blood which stinks, and which is found only in the 

 veins of the Jews. W. C. 



Taylor Club (2 nd S. ix. 19G.) — The suggestion 

 of S. Wmson. is well worthy of consideration. I 

 feel assured that a Society formed with a definite 

 object in view, such as the publication of the 

 works of any one or more authors, and where the 

 expense can be readily estimated, is much more 



