Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/530

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[2 nd S. N 2G., JUNE 28. 'o

annales, et a cure des almes nient entendantz." The former received six marks, the latter five marks by the year ; but their stipends, by 2 Hen. V. st. 2. c. ii., were raised respectively to eight and seven marks. MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

" Little things on little wings" (2 nd S. i. 472.) The verses about which your correspondent B. N. T. inquires are taken from Poems by the Rev. F. W. Faber, then Fellow of the University Coll., Oxon :

" Written in a Little Lady's Little Album.

I.

" Hearts good and true Have wishes few,

In narrow circles bounded : And hope that lives On what God gives Is Christian hope well founded.

tL

" Small things are best : Grief and unrest

To rank and wealth are given ; But little things On little wings Bear little souls to Heaven."

E. J. H.

"By Hook or by Crook" (1 st S. i. ii. passim.) The origin of this saying has been discussed in your pages. Permit me to furnish you with an extract from a MS., which seems to settle the question. This MS. is in Marsh's Library (Dublin), en- dorsed " Annales Hibernioe." It was written by Dudley Loftus, born in 1618, son of Sir Adam Loftus, and great-grandson of Dr. Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Armagh, &c., Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He was a learned and oriental scholar :

"1172. King Henry the 2 nd landed in Ireland this year on S* Luke's eve, at a place in the bay of Waterford, beyond the fort of Duncannon on Munster syde, at a place called y c Crook, over ag* the tower of y e Hook ; whence arose the proverb to gayne a thing by Hook or by Crook; it being safe to gayne land in one of those places, when the winde drives from the other," &c.

I have examined the MS. CLBBICOS (D.)

Surnames (2 nd S. i. 213. 396.). Rand. The boggy space generally covered with sedges and rushes, between the embankments and stream of the rivers in East Norfolk is called the rand, rawnd, or rond. Rand in Anglo-Saxon, Danish, Dutch, and German, means a margin, exactly the sense in which it is here used. A foundling ex- posed on a rand might bear the name of the place where he was discovered. E. G. R.

Stcang (2 nd S. i. 471.) This word seems to be the Norfolk " wong," or " wang " sibilated. Spelman says of it, " Campus potius opinor semi- nalis quam pascuus." I know five or six fields so named in Norfolk ; they are all meadow, with a small rill of water rising in them. Bailey (Die.)

gives both " wang " and " wong," a field. Bos- worth (A.-S. Die.) gives " wang, wong a plain, field, ivong, land, the world." The Danish vang meadow, green field (whence Ullensvang, &c., Norway), suits our use of the word better.

E. G. R.

" Samcast" (2 nd S. i. 471.) Though not find- ing this whole word in any glossary within my reach, I would venture to suggest its derivation from or connexion with the Anglo-Sax, seam, which means " a measure of 8 bushels," or as much as a horse can carry. So that samcast may mean as much land as 8 bushels of grain would sow, a quantity which those acquainted with farming details will be able to estimate.

J. EASTWOOD.

Eckington.

Guano (2 nd S. i.374. 482.) Delpino (Spanish Die., 17G3) mentions that the Indians of Peru so call the dung of sea fowl which they fetch for manure from certain islands near the coast.

E. G. R.

The fertilising qualities of guano were evidently known in England prior to 1770, for in an account of the northern counties of that date the following

" Fowlney (i. e. Fowl's Island), so called from the amazing numbers of wild fowl resorting thither, the dung of which, collected and spread on the meadows nearest to it on the main land makes them so rich that they com- monly let at from 50s. to 31. per acre."

R. W. HACKWOOD.

Geddes (2 nd S. i. 413.) The " nonsense," if such it be, is not German but Greek, and is the conclusion of Plato's Parmenides :

"'Ovvovv Kal <ruAA.jj/3S))i' ci eiTroi/u.ei', ep el JUT) fffTiv, ovSev <TTLV, opdias av eiTrot/oiev ; TravTa.ira.a't. ju.cc ouf Eipij(70<o rolvvv TOVTO re Kal on, ('is lotKev, eV etr' earn/ ctre fir) etrnv, avro re Kal roAAa Kal Trpbs avra Kal irpos aAArjAa TraWa TTai/rios etrri re al OVIK earl, Kal (ftaCveraC re Kal oil ifxu-verat,. 'A.\i)Qe<rTO.Ta.."

On this Gruppe says :

" Wir haben hier den hbchsten Triumph platonischer Ironic seine schneidendste Kritik, und seine ausgelas- senste Laune diesmal auch von Schleiermacher ver- kannt, der den Dialog fiir unvollendet hielt, weil er ihn f iir ernst nahm und auf eine formliche Auflosung wartete, wogegen Hegel was Hohn iiber die Irrleheren Anderer ist, fiir den tiefsten Kern der Platonischen Philosophic selbst ausprach." Gegenwart und Zukunfl der Philosophic in Deutschland, p. 205. Berlin, 1855.

An Essay on the Composition and Manner of Writing of the Ancients, particularly Plato, by the late James Geddes, Esq., Advocate, Glasgow, 1748, is the only work on Plato by an author named Geddes which I know. The Advice seems to point to a contemporary, who I trust will be discovered, as the state of metaphysical science in England in 1781 is matter of curiosity. That it was low at Oxford is shown by the surprise and excitement produced by the small metaphysics of