_Lowbell_ (Vol. vii., p. 272.).--I may add to the explanation of this
word given by M. H., that _low_, derived from the Saxon _loeg_, is
still commonly used in Scotland for a flame; hence the derivation of
_lowbell_, for a mode of birdcatching by night, by which the birds,
being awakened by the bell, are lured by the light into nets held by the
fowlers. In the ballad of _St. George for England_, we have the
following lines:
"As timorous larks amazed are
With light and with a _lowbell_."
The term _lowbelling_ may therefore, from the noise, be fitly applied to
the rustic _charivari_ described by H. T. W. (Vol. vii., p. 181.) as
practised in Northamptonshire.