St. Lucia.
_Cock and Bull Story._--As the expression of a "_cock_ and _bull_ story"
has sometimes puzzled me, so it may have puzzled others, and I therefore
send the following Note, if worthy of notice:
"I have used the expressive proverbial phrase _Cock-on-a-Bell_,
familiarly corrupted into Cock-and-a-Bull, in its true and genuine
application to the fabulous narratives of Popery. There is some
measure of antiquarian curiosity attendant upon it, which may
rival the singular metamorphosis of the _Pix und Ousel_ into the
familiar sign of the _Pig and Whistle_. During the Middle Ages, as
we learn incidentally from Reinerius, _Gallus-super-campanam_ was
the ecclesiastical hieroglyphic of a _Romish Priest_: and as the
gentlemen of that fraternity dealt somewhat copiously in legends
rather marvellous than absolutely true, the contempt of Our
English Protestantism soon learned proverbially to distinguish any
idle figment by the burlesque name of a _Cock-on-a-Bell_ story,
or, as we now say, a _Cock-and-a-Bull story_."--From _An Inquiry
into the History and Theology of the Ancient Vallenses and
Albigenses_, by George Stanley Faber, B.D., 1838, p. 76. n.