_Character of the Song of the Nightingale_ (Vol. vii., p. 397.; Vol. viii., pp. 112. 475.).--One poet, not so well known as he deserves, has escaped the observation of those who have contributed to your valuable pages the one hundred and seventy-five epithets which others of his craft have applied to the "Midnight Minstrel." I allude to the Rev. F. W. Faber, in his poem of the _Cherwell Water Lily_. This poem his now become scarce, so I send you the lines to which I refer, as the "summary of epithets" which they contain, as {652} well as their intrinsic beauty, render them worthy of notice: "I heard the raptured nightingale, Tell from yon elmy grove, his tale Of jealousy and love, In thronging notes that seem'd to fall, As faultless and as musical, As angels' strains above. So sweet, they cast on all things round, A spell of melody profound: They charm'd the river in his flowing, They stay'd the night-wind in its blowing, They lull'd the lily to her rest, Upon the Cherwell's heaving breast." To those interested in this subject, so full of historical and classical, as well as poetical associations, I would mention that a late Master of Caius College, Cambridge, the Rev. Dr. Davy, printed some years since, for private circulation, a small pamphlet entitled _Observations on Mr. Fox's Letter to Mr. Grey_, in which he refutes that eminent statesman's theory of the _merry_ note of the nightingale. This pamphlet is so full of elegance and classical research, that it is much to be regretted, not only that it has never been published, but that it is the _only work_ of the learned author--the friend and associate of Porson, of Parr, and of Maltby. I possess a presentation copy, which, as only a very few copies were printed, I would gladly lend to any of your readers interested in this curious and long-pending controversy. NORRIS DECK. Cambridge. Add to the already long list, this from Spenser: "That blessed bird, that spends her time of sleep In songs and plaintive pleas, the more t'augment The memory of his misdeed that bred her woe." And this exquisite little song, written by I know not whom, but set to music by Thomas Bateson in 1604: "The Nightingale, as soon as April bringeth Unto her rested sense a perfect waking, While late bare earth proud of her clothing springeth, Sings out her woes, a thorn her song-book making; And mournfully bewailing, Her throat in tunes expresseth, While grief her heart oppresseth, For Tereus' force o'er her chaste will prevailing." H. GARDINER. _Inscriptions in Books_ (Vol. viii., p. 64. &c.).--John Bostock, sometime Abbat of St. Alban's, gave some valuable books to the library of Gloucester Hall, Oxford, with these lines in the commencement: "Quem si quis rapiat raptìm, titulumve retractet, Vel Judæ laqueum, vel furcas sentiat. Amen." ANON.