CALVERLEY'S ODE TO TOBACCO
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—There is an unfortunate confusion about the authorship' of this well-known ode. Mrs. Creighton, in the Life and Letters of Thomas Hodgkin has stated that a poem on the. subject of smoking printed in Temple Bar and erroneously attributed to Calverley was written by two sisters of Thomas Hodgkin. From these facts it has been generally inferred— the mistake was repeated in the Times of Friday, October 23— that Calverley's ode in Verses and Translations, written in the style of Longfellow's " Skeleton in Armour," is the poem of the two young Quaker ladies. As a matter of fact the two have nothing in common except their subject. It would be interesting to ascertain the dates of publication. My own copy of Verses and Translations is dated 1874, but it is the fifth edition.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Oxford.
EDWARD B. Pouvrox.
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