Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/161

 OBSCURE WORDS IN CHARTERS, RENTALS, &C. 119 as such is a subject of lease or grant. Those of Wareham wood were for some centuries held by copy of court roll. The words "volata," " volatus," and "volatile," in the above extracts, are evidently synonymous. In an extent of Canon Leigh priory, Devon, temp. Ed. II., (cited in Oliver's Monasticon, Exon., p. 232,) an arable field, "juxta volatile woodcoccorum," is mentioned. The words "flight" and " rode," as applied to sea-fowl shooting in southern parts of England, will be found in several of our provincial glos- saries, as in Halhwell, liolloway, &c. ; and Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, tells us that woodcocks arrive in such abundance in that county that " almost everie hedge serveth for a roade, and everie plashoote for springles to take them." (Ed. 17G9, p. 24.) Neither cockshetes, nor their equivalent cockrodes, are con- fined to the western counties. In the register of Tinmouth priory we have the following'' : " Concessum est Waltero filio Ricardi tenere illud cokshot quod .Joh. de Wylom prius tenuit in orientali bosco de Wylom a die raercurii prox. post fest. S. Lucse Evan, anno regni regis Edwardi tertii &cc. xiii usque eundem diem anno revoluto reddendo inde domino Priori x gallos silvestres." There follow in the same instrument other similar grants of "cokshotes" for rent in khid. In the observations on the names of places attached to Mr. Hartshorne's Salopia Antiqua, the word cockshut is said to be "of frequent recurrence in many counties." "One would expect," says the author, " to find it easy of expla- nation, in consequence of its general acceptance. This, how- ever, is not the case. The Celtic cok, elevatus, caput, is the nearest approach we can make to the prefix ; and in the same language sj/od, ysyod, silva, is the best word which explains the termination." The author then enumerates various cock- shuts, cockshots, cockshutes, and cockshoots, known to him in different counties, to which he might have added the " cock- shoot- enclosure" in Dean Eorest. If we are correctly in- formed by the anonymous author of a Herefordshire glossary, recently published*^, the word is still used in that county to signify " a contrivance for catching woodcocks in a glade by a suspended net." It was to be expected that, like its kindred cockrode, the •' ■•) DiiLTil. Moil. 302. last eil. '■ LoiuU.n, Muirav, 183!).