Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/160

 ON CERTAIN OBSCURE WORDS IN CHARTERS, REN- TALS, ACCOUNTS, &c., OE PROPERTY IN THE WEST OE E^GljA^I).—{Co7itinued.) CoKSHETE. — 111 the great case of Rowe v. Brenton, tried at bar in the Court of King's Bench in 1828, an inquisition after the death of Edmund earl of Cornwall was put in evidence, taken anno 29 Ed. I., containing an extent or survey of dif- ferent manors in Cornwall. Under the manor of Restormel the jury find a certain park there, " Item sunt in parco prae- dicto qusedam volata? quae dicuntur cokshetes, et valent per annum 12d." Two other parks are mentioned in the same document, in which the profits of the " volatse" there are also specified. In another account of the same manor of Restormel this item of profit appears under the head of " firma volatil' hoc anno" (Compot. Tho. de la Hyde, 34 Ed. I.) In a subsequent record of 11 Ed. III. (captio seisinse pro Duce Cornubise) an extent of the same manor specifies the profit as arising " de volatil' in parco." In an account 21 Ed. III. we have " de volatu nihil, quia null' in parco." In later ministers' accounts, as in 12 Ed. IV. and 7 Hen. VII., the reeve of Restormel accounts for the issues of a " cockrode," and we no longer find any mention of cokshetes, volatae, or volatil(m). We can thus trace the descent of the "cokshetes" of Earl Edmund down to the "cockrodes" of a later period in the same identical manor, under which latter name they are still known in several parts of Cornwall. The cockrodes in Ware- ham w^ood, near Callington, subsisted until a recent period, and those in the woods of Trenant, near Looe, are still visible to a spectator standing on the opposite banks of the West Looe river. A cockrode has often been described. It has been called a " sort of net"," and it has probably been used in that sense in some parts of the country ; but in CornAvall it means the passage or opening cut in a wood for the more convenient capture of woodcocks by means of nets, guns, or springs, and ^ Dictionarium Rusliciim et Urbanicuni, 8vo.