COPE is also the name of an ancient custom or tribute due to the king or lord of the soil, out of the lead-mines in some part of Derbyshire; of which Manlove faith thus:
Egress and regrefs to the king's highway,
The miners have; and let and cope they pay:
The thirteenth dith of ore within their mine,
To the lord, for let, they pay at measuring time;
Sixpence a load for cope the lord demands,
And that is paid to the borough sherif's hands.
This word by doomsday-book, as Mr Hagar hath interpreted it, signifies a hill: and cope is taken for the supreme cover, as the cope of heaven.