On the south side of the chancel of St. Giles' Church, Durham, is a wooden effigy in full armour; the head resting on a helmet, and the hands raised as in prayer. It is supposed to be the tomb of John Heath, who became possessed of the Hospital of St. Giles Kepyer, and is known to have been buried in the chancel of St. Giles' Church. He died in 1590. At the feet of the wooden effigy, are the words "HODIE MICHI." The figure was restored in colours about ten years ago. CUTHBERT BEDE, B. A. * * * * * "COULD WE WITH INK," &c. (Vol. viii., p. 127.) The _bonâ fide_ author of the following lines-- "Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the heavens of parchment made, Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God above, Would drain the ocean dry; Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretch'd from sky to sky." is Rabbi Mayir ben Isaac. The above eight lines are almost a literal translation of four Chaldee ones, which form part of a beautiful ode on the attributes of God, not unmixed with a considerable proportion of the fabulous, which is sung in every synagogue during the service of the first day of the feast of Pentecost. May I now be permitted to ask you, or any of your numerous correspondents, to inform me who was the _bonâ fide_ translator of Rabbi Mayir ben Isaac's lines? The English lines are often quoted by itinerant advocates of charity societies as having been found inscribed, according to some, on the walls of a lunatic asylum, according to others, on the walls of a prison, as occasion requires; but extempore quotations on platforms are sometimes vague. MOSES MARGOLIOUTH. Wybunbury. The verses are in Grose's _Olio_ (p. 292.), and are there said to be written by nearly an idiot, then living (March 16, 1779) at Cirencester. It happens, however, that long before the supposed idiot was born, one Geoffrey Chaucer made use of the same idea, and the same expressions, although applied to a totally different subject, viz. in his "Balade warnynge men to beware of deceitful women:"-- "In soth to saie though all the yerth so wanne Wer parchment smoth, white and scribbabell, And the gret see, that called is th' Ocean, Were tourned into ynke blackir than sabell, Eche sticke a pen, eche man a scrivener able, Not coud thei writin woman's treacherie, Beware, therefore, the blind eteth many a flie." Again in the "Remedie of Love," the same lines occur with a few slight alterations. In vol. x. of the _Modern Universal History_, p. 430. _note_, I meet with this sentence: