242
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. m. A*RIL i, '99.
will of Miss Charlotte Rosa Raine, of St.
Margaret's Lodge, Woodstock, Oxfordshire ;
Haylands Manor House, Hyde, Isle of Wight;
and 7, Peter's Place, Brighton, who died on
19 June, 1894, and whose testament was
proved on the ensuing 28 August. Among
many interesting bequests was noted that
of her lands and hereditaments in the parish
of Wolvercot, Oxfordshire, to Lord Randolph
Henry Spencer Churchill,
" in recognition of his commanding political genius, and also in acknowledgment to the Marlborough family of the favours and benefits derived from the Marlborough estates by my late father, who had the honour of acting as receiver of these estates under the Court of Chancery."
But the most striking part followed :
" ' And as regards my pussies, 5 she gives her dear old white puss Titiens, and her pussies Tabby Rolla, Tabby Jennefee, and black-and-white Ursula to Ann Elizabeth Matthews, and she directs her executors to pay her 121. a year for the maintenance of each cat so long as it shall live. Her long-haired white puss Louise, and her black-and-white puss Dr. Clansman, to her handmaiden, Elizabeth Wil- loughby, and her Black Ebony and White Oscar to Miss Lavinia Sophia Beck ; and her executors are directed to pay them also 121. a year for each of these pussies so long as it shall live. All the re- mainder of her pussies she gives to the said Ann Elizabeth Matthews, and she directs her executors to pay her out of the balance of the dividends of her father's Lambeth Waterworks shares 150?. a year for their maintenance so long as any of them shall live, ' but this is not to extend to kittens afterwards born.' There is also a direction to Ann Elizabeth Matthews to live out of this annuity in the village of Haylands (or elsewhere) in a cottage and garden for the maintenance of the same pussies, unless the Rev. William Martin Spencer is willing to permit the pussies to reside on the premises and in the garden at Pound. All live creatures she leaves to the kindly disposal of her executors, and if her poor old black mare Fenella should be alive she authorizes them to take from her estate a sum sufficient to pay for her board and lodging as long as she shall live."
It was said at the time, by the way, that the late Lord Randolph Churchill declined to receive his share of this singular bequest. ALFRED F. ROBBINS.
JOHN BULL OF FRENCH ORIGIN. In the
Journal des Ddbats (edition hebdpmadaire,
samedi, 18 fevrier, p. 322) there is a very
interesting paragraph which deserves, I
think, mention in these pages. It runs as
follows :
"Whence comes the nickname of 'John Bull,' applied to our good friends on the other side of the Channel ? It is a little historico-philological problem of no mean interest. A satisfactory answer to this question has often been sought, but with indifferent success : adhuc subjudice Its est. One of the latest numbers of a German publication, the Archives for
the Study of Modern Languages, offers a new explana-
tion. The writer mentions the fact that the surname
of 'John Bull' appears for the first time in a
political satire by Arbuthnot, ' The History of John
Bull,' which was published at the end of the eigh-
teenth century. ^Philologists have therefore attri-
buted to Arbuthnot himself the invention of this
nickname. Now how could the idea of comparing
an Englishman to a bull have suggested itself to
Arbuthnot's mind? The following is the explana-
tion furnished by the Archives. One of the chief
characters in the satire is called Nick Frog, and
personifies the Dutch nation. The Low Countries
are described by Arbuthnot as being one huge
morass, whose profound quiet is only broken at
distant intervals by the hoarse crpakings of Nick
Frog. This Nick Frog is an ambitious little fellow
who would very much like to equal his neighbour
John Bull in size. Arbuthnot, it is clear, must
have borrowed the characters and the fundamental
idea of his satire from La Fontaine's fable ' The
Frog and the Ox.' Consequently the nickname of
' John Bull ' would appear to be derived indirectly
from our immortal fabulist. Arbuthnot's extensive
acquaintance with French literature renders the
hypothesis of the Archives very probable."
The French writer, or the German one whom he follows, is wrong in saying that the book was published towards the close of the eighteenth century. As a matter of fact, it was printed in parts in the year 1712, and must have at once become popular to an extraordinary degree, as I shall be able to show. It undoubtedly gave rise to the national epithet. Dr. Brewer can supply no other origin, and the late Prof. H. Morley says in the introduction to his edition of the 'History of John Bull' (Cassell & Co.'s "National Library," 1889), "This is the book which fixed the name and character of John Bull on the English people."
It will be of interest to bibliographers, and also prove the popularity of the oook, if I mention that I have now before me copies of the first three parts, all of the fourth edition ; ' An Appendix to John Bull still in his Senses ' (appendix to third part), second edition ; and the fourth part, ' Lewis Baboon [Lewis Bour- bon, the French King] turned Honest and John Bull Politician,' second edition. All these were "printed for John Morphew, near Stationer's Hall, London, 1712." With these has been bound " A Complete Key to the Four Parts of Law is a Bottomless- Pit, and the Story of the St. Alban's Ghost, fourth edition, corrected. Printed in the year MDCCXII. Price Two - pence."* Neither
- The original title was "Law is a Bottomless-
Pit. Exemplify'd in the Case of The Lord Strutt, John Bull, Nicholas Frog, and Lewis Baboon. Who spent all they had in a Law-Suit. Printed from a Manuscript found in the Cabinet of the famous Sir Humphry Polesworth." The author's name is not given.
