The difference mentioned by DR. RIMBAULT between the initials in the title-page and those appended to the dedication, occurs also in Mr. Smith's edition. But the dedication to which the initials R.P. are affixed, speaks of the book as the work of the writer in the most unmistakeable terms. Was the S. in the place of the P. a typographical error, perpetuated by carelessness and oversight; or a mystification of the author, adopted when the success of the book was uncertain, and continued after the dedication had contradicted it, by that want of attention to minutiæ which was more frequently manifest in former times than at present?
Mr. Leigh Hunt informs us that the Countess of Northumberland, to whom the dedication is made, was the lady to whom Percy addressed his Reliques of Ancient Poetry. "She was a Wriothesley descended of Shakspeare's Earl of Southampton, and appears to have been a very amiable woman."
Permit me to take this opportunity of saying, that there is a misprint in the poem by Barry Cornwall (Vol. ii., p. 451.), by which the title of a poem from which a quotation is made, appears as the name of a dramatis persona. "Paris" is the title of a poem by the Rev. Geo. Croly, from which the "motto" is quoted.
G.J. DE WILDE.
Peter Wilkins (Vol. ii., p. 480.).—In the preface to a garbled and mutilated edition of this work, which appeared Lond. 1839, sq. 12mo., it is stated that the author was Robert Pultock, of Clement's Inn, which is in accordance with the initials to the dedication. Those of R.S. on the title I consider as mere fiction. Lowndes gives the 1st ed. 1750, 2 vols. 12mo. and I have a note of a reprint, Dublin, Geo. Falkner, 1751, 2 vols. 12mo., "illustrated with several cuts." My copy is Lond. 1816, 2 vols. 12mo., with a few indifferent engravings.
F.R.A.
"The Toast," by Dr. King (Vol. ii., p. 480.).—DR. RIMBAULT will find the key to the characters named in this poem printed in Davis's Second Journey round the Library, &c., p. 106.
F.R.A.
[W.A. informs us that there is a key to this work in Martin's Account of Privately Printed Books.]
The Widow of the Wood (Vol. ii., p. 406.).—The history of this publication can hardly be given without raking up a piece of scandal affecting an honourable family still in existence. If DR. RIMBAULT wishes to see the book, and has any difficulty in meeting with it, I shall be happy to forward him my copy by the post on learning his address. I inclose you mine, and will thank you to communicate it to him if he should wish for it.