* * * * *
_Baldrocks_ (Vol. iii., p. 328.).--On looking over a vestry book
belonging to South Lynn in this town, commencing at 1605, and ending in
1677, I find some Churchwardens' Accounts, and amongst them the two
following entries, which may, I trust, assist "A CHURCHWARDEN," and lead
to an elucidation of this word:--
"1610.
"Janua. 17. ffor a _balledrick_ to ye great Bell, xxi_d._
"1618.
"Novemb. 22. Item. for mendine of ye _baldericke_ for ye foore
bell, vj_d._"
From these entries it seems that the "baldrock" was something attached
to the great bell.
In most of the recent English Dictionaries the word is applied to
furniture, and to a belt or girdle. But in a Latin Dictionary published
at Cambridge in 1693, I find in the Anglo-Latin part the following:--
English. A bawdrick of a bell clapper.
Latin. Ropali corrigia.
And the English of "Ropali Corrigia" seems (notwithstanding the English
version given with it) to be "_pieces of leather_," or "_thongs of
leather_" to the bell clapper, but for what purpose used I do not know.