Y our . purchase . heaven . for . your . habitation."
This, it will be seen, is an acrostic: the lines between brackets are insertions.
Wm. Procter.
York.
Derivation of Lowbell (Vol. vii., p. 181.).—In my younger days I frequently had occasion to draw out (from old established precedent) the form of an appointment, by the lord, of a gamekeeper for a manor, in which the latter was authorised and required to seize and destroy all and all manner of gins, snares, springs, &c., including a dozen or more technical words, one of which was "lowbells." The manors in question were in Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, but I doubt not but that the same form was adopted in other counties in various parts of England. Being strongly impressed with the familiarity of the word on reading H. T. W.'s Note, I was induced to refer to Johnson's Dictionary, where I find my own notion fully borne out as follows:
"Lowbell.—A kind of fowling in the night, in which the birds are wakened by a bell and lured by a flame."
At this moment I have only the abridged edition (3rd edition, 1766) to refer to, and that does not give any reference or authority for the definition in question. I would observe, however, that I believe "loke" is either a Saxon or Scandinavian word, signifying a flame or firebrand, which, coupled with "bell," fully bears out the definition, and I think sufficiently accounts for the term "lowbelling" in H. T. W.'s Note, as the offender might have been greeted with bells and firebrands in lieu of the "tin pots and kettles," or by way of addition to them.
May not this also serve to explain what is considered as a puzzling term in Beaumont and Fletcher? Lowell being nothing more nor less than a snare, may not "Peace, gentle lowbell," mean "Peace, gentle ensnarer?"
M. H.
The Negative given to the Demand of the Clergy at Merton (Vol. vii., p. 17.).—Warburton agrees with Bishop Hurd on this subject, for he observes as follows, in one of his letters (the 84th), that—