stitute for the bull: and in other places the head, without any horns at all. But these changes in the course of time are no way extraordinary: they stare an intelligent man in the face in every town throughout the kingdom.

DOGWELL COURT, WHITE FRIARS,
WHY SO CALLED.

This court is improperly set down in the city books Dodwell Court, as if it had formerly belonged to one Dodwell as proprietor; but it is a well-known fact, that it took its name from a dog's accidentally falling into a well (famed for the medicinal quality of the water) which is still to be seen in the cellar of the upper house in the court, and being thereby cured of a most inveterate mange. From this accident, the well grew into very great repute, insomuch, that in monkish times it was prodigiously resorted to by persons afflicted with cutaneous disorders; but since the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry the Eighth, has been noted for nothing more than the tradition of its former virtues.-Annual Register, vol. vi.

ORIGIN OF THE TERM, JOHN BULL.

Dr. John Bull was the first Gresham psofessor of music, and organist and composer to Queen Elizabeth. John, like a true Englishman, travelled for improvement, and having heard of a famous musician at St. Omer's, he placed himself under him as a novice; but a circumstance very soon convinced the master, that he was inferior to the scholar. The musician shewed John a song, which he had composed in forty parts!-telling him, at the same time, that he defied all the world to produce a person capable of adding another part to his composition. Bull desired to be left alone, and to be indulged for a short time with pen and ink. In less than three hours, he added forty parts more to the song. Upon which the Frenchman was so much surprised, that he swore in great extacy, he must be either the Devil, or John Bull : which has ever since been proverbial in England.

ORIGIN OF SANDWICHES.

Lord Sandwich, when minister of state, having passed twenty-four hours at a public gaming table,

was so absorbed in play during the whole time, that he had no subsistence but a bit of beef between two slices of toasted bread, which he eat without ever quitting the game. This new dish was ever afterwards, and is to this day, called by the name of the minister who invented it.

ORIGIN OF THE CUSTOM OF SALUTING THOSE WHO SNEEZE.

From Dr. Nugent's History of France.

The common practice of saluting those who sneeze is generally dated from the age of Brunehaut, and the pontificate of Gregory the Great. It is said, that in the time of that holy prelate, there was so contagious a malignity in the air, that those who unluckily happened to sneeze expired directly: this made the religious pontiff enjoin to the faithful, certain prayers, accompanied with wishes, that they might be saved from the dangerous effects of the corruption of the air. This is a fable, invented contrary to all the rules of probability; it being certain, that this custom subsisted from the most remote antiquity, in all parts of the known world.

C

We read in mythology, that the first sign of life given by the man whom Promotheus formed was sneezing. This pretended creator, as we are told, stole part of the rays of the sun, and with them filled a phial, which he sealed hermetically : he then returned with speed to his favourite work, and presented to it his flask open. The solar rays had lost nothing of their activity; they immediately insinuated themselves into the pores of the statue, and made it sneeze. Prometheus, transported at the success of his machine, had recourse to prayer, and uttered wishes for the preservation of that extraordinary being. His creature heard him: he remembered the wishes, and took particular care, upon similar occasions, to apply them to his descendants; who, from father to son, have to this day preserved it in all their colonies.

The Rabins, in speaking of this custom, do not give it the same antiquity: they tell us, that after the creation God made an universal law, the purport of which was, that every living man should sneeze but once ; and that, at the same instant, he should render his soul to God, without any previous indisposition. Jacob, whom this abrupt

manner of quitting the world by no means suited, and who desired to have it in his power to make his conscience easy, and settle his family affairs, humbled himself before the Lord, expostulated with him once again, and prayed with the utmost earnestness to be exempted from the general law. His prayers were heard; he sneezed, but did not die. All the princes of the earth being informed of the fact, ordered with one accord, that for the time to come, sneezing should be accompanied with thanksgiving, and wishes for the prolongation of life.

We may trace from these fictions, the origin of that tradition and history, which place, long before the establishment of Christianity, the rise of this piece of civility, which is at last become one of the duties of social life. It was looked upon as very ancient in the time of Aristotle, who did not know its origin, and has investigated the reason of it in his problems. He maintains, that the first men prepossessed in favour of the head, (as the chief seat of the soul,) that intelligent substance, which governs and animates the whole mass, have carried their respect for it so far, as to honour even a sneeze, one of its manifest and sensi.