Obs. Also 6 lowe-bell, 6–7 low-bel, 7 logh-bell, loobel, loubel(l. [? f. LOW a. + BELL.
On the assumption that sense 2 is the original, the word has generally been referred to LOW sb.2; cf. Phillips (ed. Kersey, 1706), ‘Luff or Lough, a Light or Flame, to Fowl with a Low-bell.’ But it is difficult to see how sense 1 can be a transferred application of sense 2, while the reverse development would be quite normal.]
1. A small bell, esp. a cow-bell or sheep-bell; jocularly, a bell generally.
1578. G. Best, in Hakluyt’s Voy. (1600), III. 59. The captaine … knowing wel how they greatly delighted in our toyes, and specially in belles, he rang a prety lowbell, making signes that he would giue him the same that would come and fetch it. [Afterwards: he rang a louder bell.]
1598. Florio, Sampogna,… a bell hanged about sheepe or goates, a lowe-bell.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, I. iii. Peace gentle low-bell.
a. 1634. Randolph, Muse’s Looking-gl., III. i. I’le get a high crown’d hat with five Low-bels.
1661. Morgan, Sph. Gentry, IV. iii. 33. Two cowes … with collers and lowbells.
1664. Cotton, Scarron., 66. In a pretty wooden steeple A Low-Bell hung to call the people.
2. A bell used in fowling at night.
The process of fowling with ‘low-bell and hand-net’ is elaborately described in Dict. Rusticum et Urbanicum (1704). The birds are to be stupefied with terror by the noise of the bell and the sudden glare from lights contained in a tin-lined box serving as a dark lantern; when they are thus rendered motionless, the net is to be thrown over them.
1581. Act 23 Eliz., c. 10 § 6. Others, which … take any Partridges or Feasaunts by night vnder any Tramel, Lowbell, Roadenete or other Engyn.
1589. Rider, Bibl. Schol., A Lowebell to catch birdes with all in the night, campinula.
1607. Hieron, Defence, I. 210. But belike M. H. thought, that the word accursed, would sound both lowder and fowler, and so amaze men (as a loobel doth Larks) till he threw his nett upon them.
1661. Boyle, Style of Script., 27. Some he catches … with frights (as Black-birds with … a Low-Bell).
1707. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., III. vii. 313. The Nobility and Gentry have their … Guns for Birding, Lowbells [etc.].
1709. W. King, Art Love, I. 47. The fowler’s low-bell robs the lark of sleep.
1792. Osbaldiston, Brit. Sportsm., 445. The sound of the low-bell causes the birds to lie close, and not to stir when the net is over them.
1821. Sporting Mag., IX. 11. Hays, nets, low-bells, hare-pipes.
fig. 1653. Milton, Hirelings (1659), 132. Now commonly he who desires to be a minister, looks not at the work, but at the wages, and by that lure or loubel may be toald from parish to parish all the town over.
