[The REV. MACKENZIE WALCOTT has also kindly informed us that the
original lines and the rejoinder are to be found in Brayley's
_Londiniana_, vol. iv. pp. 216-7.]
_Sewell, Meaning of_ (Vol. iii., pp. 391. 482.).--H. C. K. makes an
error in supposing that "formido," as used by Virgil in the passage
quoted, and "sewell," are convertible terms. If there is any word in
that passage which could be considered coextensive in meaning with the
word "sewell," it would undoubtedly be "penna." Nor is "sewell" a
_modern_ term, as he supposes; in proof of which I add an extract from a
letter written by Dr. Layton, one of the commissioners for the
suppression of monasteries, to Thomas Cromwell, dated 1535, in which the
word "sewel" occurs:
"We have sett Dunce (Duns Scotus) in Bocardo, and have utterly
banisshede hym Oxforde for ever, with all his blinde glosses, and
is nowe made a comon servant to evere man, faste nailede up upon
postes in all comon houses of easement: _id quod oculis meis
vidi_. And the second tyme we came to New Colege, affter we hade
declarede your injunctions, we fownde all the gret quadrant court
full of the leiffes of Dunce, the wynde blowing them into evere
corner. And there we fownde one Mr. Grenefelde, a gentilman of
Buckinghamshire, getheryng up part of the said bowke leiffes (as
he saide) therewith to make hym _sewelles_ or _blawnsherres_ to
kepe the dere within the woode, thereby to have the better cry
with his howndes."
H. C. K. wishes to know the origin of the word "sewell." Can any of your
readers explain the derivation of the term "blawnsherres?" Can it be
connected with the French _blanche_, from white parchment, &c. having
been used in making them?