7 FEBRUARY 1903, Page 16

" SILAS TITUS COMBERBACKE."

[TO THE EDITOR Or THE "'SPECTATOR.")

Sra,—Mr. J. Dykes Campbell, in the Memoir which is generally considered the dernier mot on all matters connected with Coleridge, says that the poet enlisted under the name of Silas Tomkyn Comberbacke in the 15th or King's Regiment of Light Dragoons (" Samuel Taylor Coleridge," ed. 1896, p. 28). Lamb in his essay on "The Two Races of Men" calls his friend Comberbatch, but Canon Ainger in his note on the passage in question says that Coleridge enlisted as Silas Titus Comberback. The question seems to be one more suited to Notes and Queries than the Spectator, but as it has been raised in these columns, it would be satisfactory if it were settled in some authoritative manner.—I am, Sir, Sic., W. F. P.