Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/626

 516 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.ix. DEC. 24,1021. copyright reprints, and the text which was the last to pass under his correction has always been regarded as the standard text of Dickens. Mr. Waugh was of course referring to the editions published by Chapman, and Hall. The edition largely illustrated by Barnard is the " Household " edition, the publication of which, in parts, commenced in 1870. I believe it will be found that the ' Charles Dickens Edition " is the earliest in which descriptive page-headings appeared, and that all previous editions, including the firsts, have only the title of the book as headings. Any differences in these found in issues published after the " Charles Dickens " cannot have been made by the author. T. W. TYBBELL. St. Elmo, Sidmouth. QUOTATIONS ON CHEESE (12 S. x. 188, 235, 255, 335, 455). The second saying at the last reference is recorded in a, pre- sumably, earlier, and certainly in a more euphonious form, by Ray, ' Collection of English Proverbs,' p. 40, ed. 1678, among the ' Proverbs and Proverbial Observations belonging to Health, Diet and Physick,' Cheese it is a peevish elfe, It digests all things but it self. Ray's note calls this a translation of " that old rhythming Latin verse, * Caseus est nequam quia digerit omnia sequam.' " For digerit we may read concoquit. The line, for which Ray gives no reference, is one of the precepts of the " Schola Saler- nitana" (see King's 'Classical and Foreign Quotations'). There are other maxims con- cerning cheese in medieval Latin verse. EDWABD BENSLY. JONAS COAKEB, " THE DABTMOOB POET." (12 S. ix. 448, 496). Particulars of his life, with a few quotations from his poems and a portrait, are to be found in ' West Country Poets' (1896), the work of Mr. W. H. Kearley Wright. Coaker was successively servant-boy, labourer (" building newtake walls "), land- lord of the New House (later Warren House) Inn ; incidentally he was a long-distance runner and verse-maker an athletic poet, who has been described as " genial." " Latterly Jonas was the rate-collector for the parish of Lydford, and when he became too infirm for this he resided at Ring Hill. . . . He died Feb. 12, 1890." He became nearly blind. His verses appear to have been printed in fragment?, and he seems to have written a poetical ' Sketch of the Several Denominations in the Christian World ' (Tavistock, 1871). In 1873 he wrote an account in verse of the " Dartmoor man- oeuvres." As MB. SOTJLBY mentions verses in a book edited by Mr. Robert Dymond, I may point out that in an anthology entitled ' Devonshire Scenery,' edited by the Rev. William Everitt, there is a poem of 24 lines headed ' Dartmeet. From the Visitors' Book at P. French's Cottage, and printed in Mr. R. Dymond's Widdecombe-in-the- Moor,' commencing : A maiden fair from the West came down Clad in a dress of the brightest brown. These verses are merely signed J. C., but I do not know if the initials indicate Jonas Coaker. RUSSELL MABKLAND. There is a biographical notice, with por- trait, in W. H. K. Wright's ' West-Country Poets.' It is there stated that " Coaker' s verses have been printed in fragments." The samples quoted are very poor stuff. The book referred to in the query is ' Things New and Old, concerning the Parish of Widecombe-in-the-Moor and its Neighbour- hood,' edited by Robert Dymond, F.S.A., and published at Torquay in 1876. It con- tains a poem by Coaker on Widecombe-m- the-Moor, running to 31 verses, the first of which is as follows : And now romantic Widecombe Shall be the subject of my rhyme ; It seems there is abundant room To speak upon it at this time. R. PEABSE CHOPE. RIDDLE : " THE LETTEB H " (12 S. ix. 469). The poem is given as Catherine Fanshawe's in Locker-Lampson's ' Lyra Elegantiarum.' A note on it (p. 423, ed, 1891) is as follows : This riddle has been published as Lord Byron's ; but there is no doubt about its authorship. The Rev. Mr. Harness, who edited Miss Fanshawe's ' Literary Remains,' says he remembers her reading it at the Deepdene in the summer of 1816, and the admiration with which it was received. Some excellent riddles have been attributed to the late Lord Macaulay ; but I have good reason for knowing that he never wrote a riddle in his life. See also the Life of Catherine Maria Fanshawe (1765-1834) in the ' D.N.B.,' where this riddle is mentioned as her best- known piece. The first line, as given in the * Lyra Elegantiarum,' No. cccxlii., is : 'Twas in heaven pronounced it was mutter 'd in hell. EDWABD BENSLY. Written by Catherine Maria Fanshawe ;