style="font-size:15px;"> A Proclamation, by Richardson.
* Original Letter to Corbett.
* Congratulatory Ode to Right Hon. C. Jenkinson.
* Ode to Sir Elijah Impey.
* Song.
* A New Song, 'Billy's Budget.'
* Epigrams.
* Ministerial Undoubted Facts (unknown).
Journal of the Right Hon. Hen. Dundas. From the Club. Miscellaneous.
Incantation. Fitzpatrick.
Translations of Lord Belgrave's Quotations. From the Club. Miscellaneous."
Some of these minor contributions were from the pen of O'Beirne, afterwards Bishop of Meath.
Tickell should be joined with Lord John Townshend in "Jekyll." The former contributed the lines parodied from Pope.
In reply to LORD BRAYBROOKE'S Query, Moore, in his Life of Sheridan, speaks of Lord John Townshend as the only survivor of "this confederacy of wits:" so that, if he is correct, the author of "Margaret Nicholson" (Adair) cannot be now living.
Bath.
NOTES AND QUERIES
"There is nothing new under the sun," quoth the Preacher; and such must be said of "NOTES AND QUERIES." Your contributor M. (Vol. ii, p. 194.) has drawn attention to the Weekly Oracle, which in 1736 gave forth its responses to the inquiring public; but, as he intimates, many similar periodicals might be instanced. Thus, we have Memoirs for the Ingenious, 1693, 4to., edited by I. de la Crose; Memoirs for the Curious, 1701, 4to.; The Athenian Oracle, 1704, 8vo.; The Delphick Oracle, 1720, 8vo.; The British Apollo, 1740, 12mo.; with several others of less note. The three last quoted answer many singular questions in theology, law, medicine, physics, natural history, popular superstitions, &c., not always very satisfactorily or very intelligently, but still, often amusingly and ingeniously. The British Apollo: containing two thousand Answers to curious Questions in most Arts and Sciences, serious, comical, and humourous, the fourth edition of which I have now before me, indulges in answering such questions as these: "How old was Adam when Eve was created?—Is it lawful to eat black pudding?—Whether the moon in Ireland is like the moon in England? Where is hell situated? Do cocks lay eggs?" &c. In answer to the question, "Why is gaping catching?" the Querists of 1740 are gravely told,—
"Gaping or yawning is infectious, because the steams of the blood being ejected out of the mouth, doth infect the ambient air, which being received by the nostrils into another man's mouth, doth irritate the fibres of the hypogastric muscle to open the mouth to discharge by expiration the unfortunate gust of air infected with the steams of blood, as aforesaid."
The feminine gender, we are further told, is attributed to a ship, "because a ship carries burdens, and therefore resembles a pregnant woman."
But as the faith of 1850 in The British Apollo, with its two thousand answers, may not be equal to the faith of 1740, what dependence are we to place in the origin it attributes to two very common words, a bull, and a dun?—
"Why, when people speak improperly, is it termed a bull?—It became a proverb from the repeated blunders of one Obadiah Bull, a lawyer of London, who lived in the reign of King Henry VII."
Now for the second,—
"Pray tell me whence you can derive the original of the word dun? Some falsely think it comes from the French, where donnez signifies give me, implying a demand of something due; but the true original of this expression owes its birth to one Joe Dun, a famous bailiff of the town of Lincoln, so extremely active, and so dexterous at the management of his rough business, that it became a proverb, when a man refused to pay his debts, 'Why don't you Dun him?' that is, why don't you send Dun to arrest him? Hence it grew a custom, and is now as old as since the days of Henry VII."
Were these twin worthies, Obadiah Bull the lawyer, and Joe Dun the bailiff, men of straw for the nonce, or veritable flesh and blood? They both flourished, it appears, in the reign of Henry VII.; and to me it is doubtful whether one reign could have produced two worthies capable of cutting so deep a notch in the English tongue.
"To dine with Duke Humphrey," we are told, arose from the practice of those who had shared his dainties when alive being in the habit of perambulating St. Paul's, where he was buried, at the dining time of day; what dinner they then had, they had with Duke Humphrey the defunct.
Your contributor MR. CUNNINGHAM will be able to decide as to the value of the origin of Tyburn here given to us:
"As to the antiquity of Tyburn, it is no older than the year 1529; before that time, the place of execution was in Rotten Row in Old Street. As for the etymology of the word Tyburn, some will have it proceed from the words tye and burn, alluding to the manner of executing traitors at that place; others believe it took its name from a small river or brook once running near it, and called by the Romans Tyburnia. Whether the first or second is the truest, the querist may judge as he thinks fit."
And so say I.
A readable volume might be compiled from these "NOTES AND QUERIES," which amused our grandfathers; and the works I have indicated will afford much curious matter in etymology, folk-lore, topography, &c., to the modern antiquary.
JAMES THE SECOND, HIS REMAINS
The following curious account was given to me by Mr. Fitz-Simons, an Irish gentleman, upwards of eighty years of age, with whom I became acquainted when resident with my family at Toulouse, in September, 1840; he having resided in that city for many years as a teacher of the French and English languages, and had attended the late Sir William Follett in the former capacity there in 1817. He said,—
"I was a prisoner in Paris, in the convent of the English Benedictines in the Rue St. Jaques, during part of the revolution. In the year 1793 or 1794, the body of King James II. of England was in one of the chapels there, where it had been deposited some time, under the expectation that it would one day be sent to England for interment in Westminster Abbey. It had never been buried. The body was in a wooden coffin, inclosed in a leaden one; and that again inclosed in a second wooden one, covered with black velvet. That while I was so a prisoner, the sans-culottes broke open the coffins to get at the lead to cast into bullets. The body lay exposed nearly a whole day. It was swaddled like a mummy, bound tight with garters. The sans-culottes took out the body, which had been embalmed. There was a strong smell of vinegar and camphor. The corpse was beautiful and perfect. The hands and nails were very fine, I moved and bent every finger. I never saw so fine a set of teeth in my life. A young lady, a fellow prisoner, wished much to have a tooth; I tried to get one out for her, but could not, they were so firmly fixed. The feet also were very beautiful. The face and cheeks were just as if he were alive. I rolled his eyes: the eye-balls were perfectly firm under my finger. The French and English prisoners gave money to the sans-culottes for showing the body. They said he was a good sans-culotte, and they were going to put him into a hole in the public churchyard like other sand-culottes; and he was carried away, but where the body was thrown I never heard. King George IV. tried all in his power to get tidings of the body, but could not. Around the chapel were several wax moulds of the face hung up, made probably at the time of the king's death, and the corpse was very like them. The body had been originally kept at the palace of St. Germain,
