_Gray's Elegy._--In answer to your correspondent, J.F.M. (p. 101.), who asks for information respecting the competition for the best translation of Gray's _Elegy_, in which Dr. Sparke was a candidate, I would beg to refer him to the satirical poem attributed to Mr. T.J. Matthias, formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, entitled _The Pursuits of Literature_, in which a ludicrous account is given of the affair. It does not appear who offered the prize, but Mr. Nares, the editor of _The British Critic_, was the judge, and the place of meeting "The Musical Room in {139} Hanover Square," which was decorated for the occasion with appropriate scenery--at least so says _The Critic_. He thus describes the solemnity (p. 174 8th edit. 1798):-- "Lo, learned clerks in sable stole, Graceful in years, pant eager for the goal. Old Norbury starts, and, with the _seventh-form_ boys, In weeds of Greek the church-yard's peace annoys, With classic Weston, Charley Coote and Tew, In dismal dance about the mournful yew. But first in notes Sicilian placed on high, Bates sounds the soft precluding symphony; And in sad cadence, as the bands condense, The curfew tolls the knell of _parting sense_." The distribution of prizes is thus recorded, Dr. Norbury being apparently the "conqueror:"-- "Nares rising paused; then gave, the contest done, To Weston, Taylor's Hymns and Alciphron, And Rochester's Address to lemans loose; To Tew, Parr's Sermon and the game of goose; To Coote the foolscap, as the best relief A dean could hope; last to the hoary chief He filled a cup; then placed on Norbury's back The Sunday suit of customary black. The gabbling ceased; with fixed and serious look Gray glanced from high, and owned his rival, COOK." W. Lincoln's Inn, Dec. 17. _Coffee, the Lacedæmonian Black Broth._--Your correspondent "R.O." inquires what modern author suggests the probability of coffee being the black broth of the Lacedæmonians? The suggestion, I think, originated with George Sandys, the translator of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_. Sandys travelled in the Turkish empire in 1610. He first published his _Notes_ in 1615. The following is from the 6th edit. 1652, p. 52.:-- "Although they be destitute of taverns, yet have they their coffa-houses, which something resemble them. Their sit they, chatting most of the day, and sip of a drink called coffa (of the berry that it is made of), in little _China_ dishes, as hot as they can suffer it; black as soot, and tasting not much unlike it (why not that black broth which was in use among the Lacedæmonians?) which helpeth, as they say, digestion, and procureth alacrity," &c. Burton also (_Anatomy of Melancholy_) describes it as "like that black drink which was in use among the Lacedæmonians, and perhaps the same." E.B. PRICE. * * * * * QUERIES. THE LAST OF THE VILLAINS.