Stanzas in "Childe Harold" (Vol. iv. passim).—This stanza has already occupied too many of your pages; will you, however, allow me to put a ryder on it, by referring your correspondents to Lord Byron's own ignorance of the meaning of an expression in this stanza, expressed in a letter to Murray, published in Moore's Life, Letter 323, dated Venice, 24th September, 1818, when, after pointing out an error in the same canto, he says:
"What does 'thy waters wasted them' mean? That is not me. Consult the MS. always."
And in a note by Moore on this letter, he says, "This passage retains also uncorrected."
At the end of this letter Byron writes, "I saw the canto by accident." Query: If Byron only saw his cantos by "accident," would not a new edition of his works collated with his MSS. be "a consummation devoutly to be wished."
S. Wmson.
Glasgow.
"Well's a fret" (Vol. viii., p. 197.).—This is one of a class which will be lost if not recorded. Forty years ago, in the West of England, and perhaps elsewhere, a servant, when teased by a child to know where such a person was, would answer—
"In his skin
When he jumps out, you may jump in."
The answer to Eh? was always Straw. I dare say more of these things will be produced. What ought they to be called?