The village of Gotham, about seven miles from Nottingham, has been
rendered noted by the common proverb of "The Wise Men of Gotham."
It is observable that a custom has prevailed among many nations of
stigmatizing the inhabitants of some particular spot as remarkable for
stupidity. This opprobrious district among the Asiatics was Phrygia.
Among the Thracians, Abdera; among the Greeks, Boeotia; in England
it is Gotham. Of the Gothamites ironically called _The Wise Men of
Gotham_, many ridiculous stories are traditionally told, particularly,
that often having heard the cuckoo but never seen her, they hedged in
a bush from whence her note seemed to proceed, so that being confined
within so small a compass, they might at length satisfy their
curiosity; and at a place called Court Hill, in this parish, is a bush
called Cuckoo Bush.

HALBERT H.

* * * * *

MALLARD NIGHT.

At All Souls' College, Oxford, the _Mallard Night_ is celebrated
annually on the 14th of January, in remembrance of a very singular
circumstance, viz. the discovery of a live and excessively large
mallard, or drake, supposed to have long ranged in a drain or sewer
of considerable depth. The only probable conjecture respecting its
extraordinary situation was, that it had fallen when young through the
bars or grating at the entrance of the drain, (which was of sufficient
width to receive it if very young,) but was found at a great distance
from it, on digging for the foundation of the college, (A.D. 1437.) A