Dublin.
_Born within the Sound of Bow Bell._--In his edition of Stow's _Survey
of London_, Mr. Thoms appends the subjoined note to the account which is
given of Bow Church and its bells:--
"From the absence of every allusion on the part of Stow to the
common definition of a cockney, _a person born within the sound of
Bow Bells_, the saying would appear to be of somewhat more recent
date."
Stow's work was first published in 1598, and the author died in 1605.
Fuller, author of the _Worthies of England_, was born in 1608: and it
would seem that during his lifetime the definition of a cockney was
well-known; for thus does Fuller speak:--
"[He was born within the sound of _Bow Bell_.] This is the
periphrasis of a Londoner at large, born within the suburbs
thereof; the sound of this bell exceeding the extent of the Lord
Mayor's mace."
Can any correspondent of "N. & Q." refer me to an earlier writer than
Fuller for the same definition?