COCHLAEUS, JOHANN, an able and bitter antagonist of Luther’s; d. 1592.

COCHRANE, the name of several English naval officers of the Dundonald family; SIR ALEXANDER FORRESTER INGLIS (1758-1832); SIR THOMAS JOHN, his son (1798-1872); and THOMAS, LORD.  See DUNDONALD.

COCK LANE GHOST, a ghost which was reported in a lane of the name in Smithfield, London, in 1762, to the excitement of the public, due to a girl rapping on a board in bed.

COCKAIGNE, an imaginary land of idleness and luxury, from a satirical poem of that name (coquina, a kitchen), where the monks live in an abbey built of pasties, the rivers run with wine, and the geese fly through the air ready roasted.  The name has been applied to London and Paris.

COCKATRICE, a monster with the wings of a fowl, the tail of a dragon, and the head of a cock; alleged to have been hatched by a serpent from a cock’s egg; its breath and its fatal look are in mediaeval art the emblem of sin.

COCKBURN, SIR ALEXANDER, Lord Chief-Justice of England from 1859; called to the bar in 1829; became Liberal member for Southampton in 1847, and Solicitor-General in 1850; was prosecutor in the Palmer case, judge in the Tichborne, and an arbitrator in the Alabama (1802-1880).

COCKBURN, ALISON, author of “Flowers of the Forest”; in her day the leader of Edinburgh society; was acquainted with Burns, and recognised in his boyhood the genius of Scott (1713-1795).

COCKBURN, SIR GEORGE, an English admiral, born in London; rose by rapid stages to be captain of a frigate; took an active part in the expedition to the Scheldt, in the defence of Cadiz, and of the coast of Spain; was second in command of the expedition against the United States; returned to England in 1815, and was selected to convey Napoleon to St. Helena (1771-1853).

COCKBURN, HENRY, LORD, an eminent Scotch judge, born in Edinburgh; called to the bar in 1800; one of the first contributors to the Edinburgh Review; was Solicitor-General for Scotland in 1830, and appointed a judge four years after; was a friend and colleague of Lord Jeffrey; wrote Jeffrey’s Life, and left “Memorials of His Own Time” and “Journals”; he was a man of refined tastes, shrewd common-sense, quiet humour, and a great lover of his native city and its memories; described by Carlyle as “a bright, cheery-voiced, hazel-eyed man; a Scotch dialect with plenty of good logic in it, and of practical sagacity; a gentleman, and perfectly in the Scotch type, perhaps the very last of that peculiar species” (1779-1854).

COCKER, EDWARD, an arithmetician, and a schoolmaster by profession; wrote an arithmetic, published after his death, long the text-book on the subject, and a model of its kind; gave rise to the phrase “according to Cocker” (1631-1672).

COCKNEY, a word of uncertain derivation, but meaning one born and bred in London, and knowing little or nothing beyond it, and betraying his limits by his ideas, manners, and accent.