I think you and David are right, though the order issued by the company, reproduced in D&C's Nutbrook Canal book by Peter Stevenson, definitely spells it 'cough.'
The prohibition also covers 'stealing Pofts and Rails from the Fences' and 'throwing Stones and other Rubbish in the Canal.' Nothing changes, eh? Well actually, yes they do. There were fines for 'Perfons fifing with Nets... Who have no Right to do fo.' Steve Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:08:20 To: <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [canals-list] Coughing [email protected] wrote: > What's a 'cough' at a lock? And what do you do when you 'run a cough?' Why > would running coughs 'by evil difpofed Pefons' cause the officers of the > erstwhile Nutbrook Canal to offer a £5 reward for information leading to > their arrest in March 1797? > I'm guessing it's a 'clough' (pronounced to rhyme with 'cow', rather than as in Brian or Wild Boar) which is a northern (inc the L&L) regional term for a paddle. In which case 'running' one would presumably mean wasting water by leaving one open. However I understand that it was normal on many canals to leave the paddles up when leaving a lock, so I'd be surprised if the company objected. Perhaps the miscreant in question either (a) opened the paddles at both ends of a lock or (b) opened a run-off paddle rather than a lock paddle. Martin ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[email protected] mailto:[email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
