14 APRIL 1877, Page 16

EPIGRAMS.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.")

SIR,—Allow me to correct an error of fact in your review of the " Epigrammatists," in the Spectator of March 31.

The reviewer states:—" No collection of epigrams, we make bold to say, even were it ten times as small as Mr. Dodd's, can afford to omit the most sparkling and charming epigram which has every graced, or ever, we fancy, will grace, a lady's album

Accept a miracle instead of wit,—

See two dull lines by Stanhope's pencil writ.'"

I quite agree with the reviewer, and had he taken the trouble to turn to the index of first lines, he would have found that the epigram, with a note on the subject of the authorship, is given at p. 312 of the " Epigrammatists."

The reviewer adds :—" These lines were written,—but who does- not know by whom they were written, and for whom ?" Perhaps- he imagines them to be Pope's, to whom they have been com- monly ascribed, and having failed to find them amongst the epi- grams of that poet, assumed that I had omitted them. The lines- are by Young. The history of them is given in Spence's- " Anecdotes," 1820, p. 377.-1 am, Sir, &c., HENRY PHILIP DODD-