27 JUNE 1896, Page 34

THE " DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS."

[To THE EDITOR OF TEE " SPECTAT011."] SIR,—In your review of Colonel Dalbiac's "Dictionary of Quotations," you hardly give the credit which is due to his predecessors in similar collections. For example, I find that "Fine by degrees," &c., is rightly attributed to Prior in "Henry and Emma" by Mr. Bartlett in his "Familiar Quotations," published by Macmillan, and the same book gives "She looketh as butter would not melt," &c., as John Heywood's, " Proverbes, Part I., chap. x."—I am, Sir, &c.,

F. W. G.