The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #56216   Message #877598
Posted By: Amos
29-Jan-03 - 10:44 AM
Thread Name: Beagle or Beadle?
Subject: RE: Beagle or Beadle?
As a beadle is "A minor parish official formerly employed in an English church to usher and keep order during services" (AmHerDict) it would make little sense for the bailiff to be said to own one. The repetition is just a poetic alliteration. Songs aren't constrained by logic. (Unless some republican has been working late at night to drum up a new law...).

A