—The remark of your correspondent EYE-SNUFF, "that any lay scholar of adequate attainments in theology is competent to receive this distinction, and any university to bestow it upon him," is incorrect in two ways, as far as the university of which I am a member is concerned. A reference to the Oxford University Calendar, or to the Statutes of the University, will show him that no one can take the degree of B.D., or D.D., without first exhibiting his letters of priest's orders: and the theological attainments represented by the degree D.D. are next to nothing; the exercise required for B.D. used to be a mere form, and I believe is little more now; a certain number of terms kept in the university, and payment of certain fees, being all that is necessary for proceeding D.D. The case is the same, I imagine, at Cambridge.
W. FRASER.
Lass of Richmond Hill (Vol. ii., p. 103.).
—I have heard it said, of course with little regard to probability, that this once popular song was written by George IV. when Prince of Wales.
W. FRASER.
A Bull (Vol. ii., p. 441.).
—I have heard it argued that the word bull, meaning an incoherent blunder, was derived from the Pope's Bulls, the tyrannical contents and imperious tone of which often made so odd a contrast with the humility of the subscription, "Servus servorum Dei," that the name bull was applied to anything that seemed absurdly inconsistent or self-contradictory.
W. FRASER.
Remains of Horses and Sheep in Churches (Vol. v., p. 274.).
—We have good evidence that the Saxons used the places of sepulture which they found in England; and it is well known that Anglo-Saxon remains have often been discovered in the vicinity of churches, a fact which leads to the supposition that churches occupied the sites of Pagan temples. The bones of animals have often been found on and near the sites of our London churches.