It is curious to obſerve that Dun, who, as we ſaid before, was finiſher of the law in the reign of Henry VII., had a ſon, who became a bailiff—This bailiff having ſcraped ſome money together, made his ſon an attorney, who changed the name of Dun to Dunning—the reſt of the genealogy are well known.
Massachusetts Gazette, Aug. 29, 1786.
Biographical Correctness.—As a specimen of the accurate way in which Biographical Dictionaries are made up, the Enquirer refers to Dr. Watkins' volume, in which he writes down that John Adams "died in 1803."—And yet for 23 years after this date, the old patriarch was living in health and happiness. A still more ludicrous blunder appeared a few years since in a French Biographical Dictionary, in which it was stated that the now venerable John Jay, who yet lives full of years and full of honors, was a Frenchman, who, after having framed the Constitution of the State of New-York, and witnessed the close of the American revolution, returned to France—became a member of the French Convention, and was finally brought to the guillotine!—N.Y. Com. Adv.
Essex Register, Sept. 18, 1826.
The works of John Paul Richter are almost unintelligible to any but Germans, and even to some of them. A worthy German, just before Richter's death, edited a complete edition of his works, in which one particular passage fairly puzzled him. Determined to have it explained at the source, he went to John Paul himself and asked him what was the meaning of the mysterious passage.—John Paul's reply was very German and characteristic: "My good friend," said he, "when I wrote that passage, God and I knew what it meant; it is possible that God knows it still; but as for me, I have totally forgotten."
Essex Register, Oct. 9, 1826.
Origin of "Foolscap" Paper. It is known that Charles I. of England, granted numerous monopolies for the support of his government. Among others was the privilege of manufacturing paper. The water mark of the finest sort was the royal arms of England. The consumption of this article was great at this time, and large fortunes were made by those who had purchased the exclusive right to vend it. This, among other monopolies, was set aside by the parliament that brought Charles to the scaffold, and by way of showing their contempt for the king, they ordered the royal arms to be taken from the paper, and a fool, with his cap and bells, to be substituted. It is now more than an hundred and seventy-five years since the fool's cap and bells were taken from the paper, but still, paper of the size which the Rump Parliament ordered for the journals bears the name of the water mark then ordered as an indignity to Charles.