Claire-voie (Anglicè, Clerestory), Arch. (i. e. clear-storey). A row of large windows, forming the upper storey of the nave of a church, rising clear above the adjoining parts of the building.
Clan (Gaelic, klann, children). A tribe of persons of one common family, united under a chieftain.
Clap-bene, O. E. Bene signifies a prayer, and children were invited by this phrase to clap their hands together, as their only means of expressing their prayers.
Clap-dish. (See Clackdish.)
Clappe or Clapper, O. E. A wooden rattle used to summon people to church on the last three days of Passion Week, when the bells were not rung.
Clarenceux, Her. The title of one of the three kings of arms at Heralds’ College. The others are called Garter and Norroy.
Clarichord, O. E. A stringed instrument, in the form of a spinet, of mediæval times. At the marriage of James of Scotland with the Princess Margaret, A. D. 1503, “the king began before hyr to play of the clarychordes, and after of the lute. And upon the said clarychorde Sir Edward Stanley played a ballad, and sange therewith.” (Wharton, “History of English Poetry.”) It is identical with the clavichord, the origin of the spinet, harpsichord, and pianoforte.
Fig. 165, 166. Clarions (heraldic).
Clarion, O. E. A small trumpet, with a shrill sound. (Represented in the third niche of the “Minstrels’ Gallery” of Exeter Cathedral, of which there is a cast in the South Kensington Museum.)