Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850 | Page 3

&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.
CORKSCREW.
* * * * *
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