14 FEBRUARY 1920, Page 13

AUTHOR FOUND.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."3

SIR,—Writing from " the sweet shady side of Pall Mall," it were ungrateful to forget the author of that delightful line, and I am glad to tell Mr. Street that ho will find the poem which he seeks in the collected works of Captain Charles Morris (1745-1838). It also forms the 155th item in Mr. Hutchison's Anthology of the Vine (London: Bullen; 1904). The stanza quoted by Mr. Street is the fifth in a poem of nine. He might have gone on :—

" Then, hipped and vexed at England's state In these convulsive days I can't endure the ruined fate My sober eye surveys; But, 'midst the bottle's dazzling glare I see the gloom less plain, And that I think's a reason fair To fill my glass again." .

80 Pall Mall, S.W. 1.