Field glasses

[Belly]

There are so many references to field glasses in the books. Anyone else confused as to why they weren't called binoculars? I guess it is one of those words like 'wireless' that hasn't stood the test of time, surprisingly few of them given when they were written.

I used to call binoculars field glasses as a child because of the books no wonder I had the reputation for being a little, shall we say, eccentric at school .

There were a few other things that stuck in my mind as looking out of place within the time I read them. Racing demon, the card game played in the FF is another. Any others that spring to mind?

Are field glasses actually something other than binoculars?

[Moonraker]

Are field glasses actually something other than binoculars?

I believe field-glasses are what the country set use to view horses at gymkhanas and race meetings. Binoculars were used at theatres. Nowadays, the term field-glasses seems to have died out.

[dsr]

My Dad used to refer to them as "glasses". But never "field glasses".

[Kate Mary]

I still use the term 'field glasses', mainly because it is what my Dad used to call them, binoculars is the more modern word, but the older form was in common usage in the 1940's. The mini binoculars used in theatres are always called 'opera glasses' which were usually mounted on a long handle called a lorgnette.

Kate.

[Mollybob]

My dad still calls them field glasses, and I thought this was quite normal until you brought it up. I suppose binnoculars is a lot more common nowadays.

As regards Racing Demon, we played this at home as children with my Dad (didn't anyone else?) so it didn't look out of place to me. It's a really fun game!

I wonder if the fact that my Dad grew up in the former colonies made him more old-fashioned and I just thought it was normal? I didn't even realise he had an accent until a few years ago