20 DECEMBER 1919, Page 15

AUTHOR FOUND.

[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR.") Sia,—The lines about which your correspondent I. Muriel Cooke inquires appear as a heading to Mr. Rndyard Kipling's " Pagett, M.P.," in Departmental Ditties. As no source is quoted, I have always assumed them to be Mr. Kipling'. own. The oorreot version runs :- " The toad beneath the harrow know.

Exactly where each tooth-point goes. The butterfly upon the road Preaches contentment to that toad."

They seem to me, despite your correspondent's opinion, to be worthy of a better writer than some " very minor Victorian poet." I should like to know if they really belong to Mr.

[We ought to have remembered the lines. We apologize to Mr. Kipling.—En. Spectator.]