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Canterbury bell(s
[See bell n.1 4; app. the full name was fancifully associated with the small bells worn on their horses by the pilgrims in pre-Reformation times, and often mentioned in the 16th c. (See Britten and Holland.)]
A flowering plant of the genus Campanula; originally applied to the native species C. Trachelium, the Nettle-leaved Bellflower or Throatwort; but in later times erroneously transferred to the cultivated exotic C. Medium, called in the 16th c. Coventry Bells or Marian's Violet. More loosely, the name has been applied to the Giant Bell-flower, C. latifolia, and perhaps to other species. (Until the present cent. always bells.)
1578Lyte Dodoens ii. xx. 170 Of Canterbury Belles or Haskewurte. Ibid. 172 In English they be called Belfloures, and of some Canterbury Belles. 1597Gerard Herbal 163 (Britten & Holl 87) Of some about London Canterbury bels, but improperly, for that there is another kind of bell flower growing in Kent, about Canterbury, which may more fitly be called Canterburie bels, bicause they grow there more plentifully than in any other countrie. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. iv. §60 The Canterbury Bells have large rough leaves like Nettles. 1741Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. iii. 357 Towards the End of this Month, sow..Canterbury-bells. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 134 The wild stalking canterbury bell, By hedge-row side. 1861Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. III. 339 Giant Bell-flower..often called Canterbury-bell. 1882Garden 1 July 12/2 A collection of Canterbury Bells.
¶ Formerly Lady's Smock, Cardamine pratensis.
1597Gerard Herbal 203 They are commonly called in Latine, Flos Cuculi; in English Cuckowe flowers; in Northfolke Caunterburie bels; at the Namptwich in Cheshire, where I had my beginning, Ladie Smocks. |