2'"i S. No 38., Sept. 20. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



237 



they are marking, or doing fine work, he will find 

 as many nearsighted as amongst an equal number 

 of ladies ; and also he will find many nearsighted 

 in manufactories, such as lace-making, where good 

 sight is required ; but in agricultural work, or 

 cottage employments, a moderate degree of sight 

 is all that is required. In my own village school 

 (containing from forty to fifty children), there is 

 about one nearsighted out of every thirty ; and of 

 imperfect vision, such as not distinguishing be- 

 tween red and green, &c., about one in seventy 

 or eighty : these are chiefly boys, and the defect 

 is discovered in using coloured maps. 



In fourteen years, I have had two cases of 

 children who could only read with the book up- 

 side down. One learnt with much difiiculty to 

 hold her book upright : the other read well, but 

 always with the letters upside down, and she in- 

 variably spelt backwards. X. 



Devon. 



''Rand'' (2"'^ S. ii. 138.) — After I had de- 

 spatched my Note (2"" S. ii. p. 97.), I recollected 

 tliat I had erroneously stated Fishlake to be 

 situated on the south bank of the river Don, in- 

 stead of the north. I wrote up instanter to the 

 office of "N. & Q.," to rectify this; but the cor- 

 rection does not appear to have been made as I 

 requested. Regarding the word Rand as a sur- 

 name, the suggestion intended to be offered by 

 me was, not that the land designated as " The 

 Rands" derived its name from the Rev. Richard 

 Rands, the benefactor of Fishlake, but that the 

 latter probably in some way owed his name to 

 the land. For instance, a resident on such a 

 spot, in early times, would be known as " John 

 at the Rands," or " John, son of William of the 

 Rands," &c. C. J. 



This is a term used by bootmakers, and applies 

 to the upper edge or border of a boot heel. 

 There is a village named Raunds in Northamp- 

 tonshire, upon the banks of the Nen. It is pro- 

 bably of Danish origin, like several others near it. 



Rand, in Danish, is the same as in German, and 

 is used of the borders of a river, &c. 



There are families named Rands in Northamp- 

 tonshire. 



These facts may help to assist in the solution of 

 the difficulty. B. H. C. 



__ ''Swang," ''Wang;' " Wong" (2"'i S. i. 47.; 

 ii. 79.) — Between Attleborough and Rockland, 

 Norfolk, according to the Ordnance Map, is a 

 "Swangey Lane" and "Swangey Fen;" and 

 near Hethersett a Wong farm. In Suffolk is a 

 village called Wang^orA, and in Yorkshire one 

 called W'Qiwang, Sufficient instances of the oc- 

 currence of this word have, however, been men- 

 tioned, nor should I have referred again to the 

 subject, had I not found in Halliwell's Dictionary 



(voce " Stunt ") the following Lincolnshire pro- 

 verb : " He's as stunt as a burnt wong, there's no 

 turning him." He defines stu7it " fierce and angry, 

 also sulky and obstinate," but professes himself 

 unable to explain the proverb. PerLaps some 

 Lincolnshire correspondent can illustrate it. 



E. G. R. 



" Sewers," " Blawn-sheres " (2°<» S. ii. 65.) — 

 These, without doubt, are the sewells described by 

 Halliwell as feathers tied to a string to prevent 

 deer from breaking ground by frightening them. 

 This was the formido of the Romans, and the fear 

 of Isaiah, xxiv. 17, 18., and Jeremiah, xlviii. 44, 

 43. E. G. R. 



Your correspondent. Me. Walcot, says, " The 

 word is sewells, not sewers ; " but he does not 

 name his authority. Skinner has the word shewres, 

 which he explains brunts or rubs ; but it seems 

 more probably a different form of scare (the in- 

 terchange of the hard so and sch is not unusual). 



Nares quotes from Sir P. Sidney an example 

 of shewell, used in the same manner — sewer, 

 schewre, or scare, and derives it from the verb, to 

 shew, from which Halliday dissents. 



The readers of our old books on hunting might 

 throw some light on the true origin and meaning 

 of these words. Q. 



Bloomsbury. 



" A dog with a bad name " (P' S. x. 88.) — No- 

 body having produced any proof, or citation of 

 proof, that the 1709 edition of Leland's Com- 

 mentarii, &c. deserves the bad character it bears, 

 I may presume that it is a faithful representation 

 of Leland. I should not, however, have troubled 

 you with this remark, if I had not accidentally 

 found what may be an answer to my own query. 

 Tanner (Nichols's Anecd., vol. v. p. 356.) writes to 

 Dr. Samuel Knight, January 26, 1719-20, as fol- 

 lows : 



" If it please God to spare my life, I shall not forget to 

 put together what I have collected for the improvement 

 of Leland, De Viris illustribus; but they having ten years 

 since printed the text at Oxford (scarce with fair usage 

 of me, whom they knew to be engaged about it before) 

 I did cool a little; but when I get through this edition of 

 Notkia MonasHca, I shall resume the other." 



We know that nothing hurts an edition more 

 than the knowledge that a better editor has been 

 arrested by its publication. And if that better 

 editor, being such a one as Tanner, should spread 

 a complaint and an impresssion that the work is 

 much less than it might have been, this would 

 easily become an opinion that it contains positive 

 faults. If it should happen that this edition, by 

 cooling Tanner for the moment, ended by bracing 

 him, so that we have the Bibliotheca instead of a 

 somewhat augmented Leland, it may then be said 

 to have great consequential merit. M. 



