2"d S. No 82., July 25.'*57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



79 



John Bradshaw (2'"i S. iv. 47.) — Without dis- 

 puting the incontinency of John Bradshaw, I 

 would suggest to *. that in giving the dates of his 

 admission to Gray's Inn as 1632, and of his call 

 to the bar as 1645, he has confounded him with 

 some person of the same name and county ; and 

 I believe the Bradshaws formed a very numerous 

 family. 



As far as ray investigations extend, the Lord 

 President was a younger son of Henry Bradshaw, 

 of Marple Hall, near Stockport, in Cheshire, and 

 was admitted into the Society of Gray's Inn on 

 March 15, 1620, and called to the bar on April 23, 

 1627. It is certain that he was elected Judge of 

 the Sheriffs' Court of the City of London in 1643, 

 and that he was assigned in 1644 as one of the 

 counsel against Lord Macquire for the rebellion in 

 Ireland (Whitelock's Memorials, p. 106.) ; both 

 sufficient to prove that be was not called to the 

 bar in 1645, as *. suggests. 



If Bradshaw had considerable property in the 

 neighbourhood of Richmond in 1644, the date of 

 the entry in the Richmond Registry, as *. would 

 lead us to infer, he could not have acquired it 

 from Lord Cottington's confiscated estates, for the 

 grant of 2000^. a-year out of them was not made 

 to him till August, 1649, as a reward for his ser- 

 vices on the king's trial. (Whitelocke, 415. 420.) 



Edwakd Foss. 



Duncombes Marines (2"^ S. iv. 51.) — John 

 Duncombe was a captain and lieut.-col. in the 1st 

 Foot Guards up to March 10, 1743, on which day 

 he was commissioned as colonel of a regiment of 

 Marines. This information may possibly tend to 

 lead W. E. to a conclusion : if he arrives at one, 

 I should be glad to be made acquainted with it. 

 I do not know whether his interest is in Col. Dun- 

 combe, or in his corps of Marines ; but if in the 

 former, I can supply him with further information. 

 Will W. E. have the kindness to sny when and 

 where he finds " Duncombe's Marines" men- 

 tioned ? and can he, or any other reader of " N. 

 & Q.," inform me who Col. Duncombe was ? I 

 have reason to believe that Duncombe was not 

 his patronymic, but was assumed on some occa- 

 sion for some purpose. James Knowi.es. 



Thomas Goddard (2°^ S. iii. 467.) — Amongst 

 the MSS. in Corpus Christi College Library, Ox- 

 ford, there is one (No. cccvii.) described in the 

 Catalogue as a " Biographical Notice of Thomas 

 Goddard," which may, perhapsf be the person 

 about whom C. B. desires information. J. E. J. 



Bow and Arrow Castle (2nd S. iv. 31.) — Your 

 correspondent, Mercatok, A.B., would probably 

 find his legend of William Rufus in the Dorset 

 Connty Chronicle, of which the Mayor of Dor- 

 chester (Mr. Enser) is, I think, possessed of a 

 complete file. Sholto Macduff. 



Lines on Lord Fanny (2"* S. iv. 50.) — I doubt 

 whether the epigram quoted by L. B. has any po- 

 litical or personal significance, or whether it has 

 any reference to Pope's Lord Fanny. It is merely 

 a bad translation of La Fontaine's fable of Le Re- 

 nard et le Buste : 



" C'etoit un buste creux, et plus grand que nature 

 Le renard, en louant I'effort de la sculpture ; 

 Belle tete, dit-il; mais, de cervelle point ! " 



The sarcasm is still more ancient than La Fon- 

 taine, who probably imitated it from Phaadrus's 

 Vulpis ad Personam Tragicam : 



" Personam tragicam forte vulpis viderat : 

 Oh quanta species, inquit, cerebrum non hahet ! " 



J. Emerson Tennent. 



Cock-and-Bull Story (1" S. ix. 209.) — As the 

 origin of this expression appears to be left an open 

 question in the P' S. of "N. & Q.," I beg leave 

 to offer what I have long considered an obvious 

 solution. It seems proper, however, to premise 

 that the explanations suggested by some of your 

 correspondents, even if they have not been deemed 

 wholly satisfactory, surely possess great value as 

 illustrating the plirase : and as a kindred illus- 

 tration I would cite the French expression " coq- 

 a-l'ane," which stands for any unconnected discowse 

 or rambling talk. This comes very near to a 

 " cock-and-bull story." But what is the origin 

 of our English phrase ? 



May we not trace it to those Pontifical letters 

 which are commonly termed " Bulls ? " The 

 " Bull," I need not say, is so called from having 

 attached to it, by a riband, the pontifical seal or 

 bulla. This bulla bears on one side the name of 

 the pope with the year of his pontificate, and on 

 the other the images of St. Peter and St. Paul. 

 The image of St. Peter is of course suggestive of 

 the cock ; and thus we have the two things 

 brought together, the " cock " and the " bull." 



When our forefathers rejected the papal su- 

 premacy, they ceased to regard the Pope's bulls 

 with either dread or veneration. And it was pro- 

 bably with reference to these once potent missives 

 that the practice then arose of designating any 

 discourse or tale that passed unheeded, as a " cock- 

 and-bull story." 



This conclusion is not in any way disturbed by 

 the near affinity of the French phrase, " coq-a- 

 I'ane," which also appears to claim an ecclesiastical 

 origin. But a few days before Peter was warned 

 to repent by the crowing of a cock, a Greater 

 than Peter entered Jerusalem riding on an ass. 

 Some preacher, discoursing on the fall of Peter, 

 suddenly passes, by an abrupt transition, to the 

 ass from the cock. Hence, we may suppose, the 

 expression " sauter du coq k I'asne " (Cotgrave, 

 1650) would naturally become vernacular, for 

 any unconnected and rambling discourse. Hence, 

 also, the phrase " coq-a-l'ane." Thomas Boys. 



