This verse, also, if I mistake not, appears in _The Poetry of the Author of Waverley_, and is certainly set down by almost every reader as the production of Sir Walter. But in the sixth volume of Anderson's _Poets of Great Britain_, at page 574. in the works of Walsh, occurs a song called "The Despairing Lover," in which we are told that-- "Distracted with care For Phyllis the fair, Since nothing could move her, Poor Damon, her lover, Resolves in despair No longer to languish, Nor bear so much anguish; But, mad with his love, To a precipice goes, Where a leap from above Would soon finish his woes. "When in rage he came there, Beholding how steep The sides did appear, And the bottom how deep, His torments projecting, And sadly reflecting That a lover forsaken," &c. &c. &c. In this instance it is shown that Sir Walter was not indebted for the comic song to his wonderful genius, but to his stupendous memory; and it is just possible that it may be so in the other, in which case one would be very glad to see the remainder of the "old ditty." T. W. Minor Queries. 56. _Was Milton an Anglo-Saxon Scholar?_--I have long been very curious to know whether Milton was an Anglo-Saxon scholar. He compiled a history of the Saxon period: had he the power of access to the original sources? Is there any ground for supposing that he had read our Saxon _Paradise Lost_; I mean the immortal poetry of Cædmon? If he really knew nothing of this ancient relic, then it may well be said, that the poems of Cædmon and of Milton afford the most striking known example of coincident poetic imagination. I should be extremely obliged to any of your learned correspondents who would bring the faintest ray of evidence to bear upon this obscure question. The similarity of the two poems has been noticed long ago, _e.g._ by Sir F. Palgrave in _The Archæologia_, xxiv. I know not whether he was the first; I think Conybeare was beforehand with him. J. E. Oxford, Aug. 2. 1851. 57. _Tale of a Tub._--What is the origin of this popular phrase? It dates anterior to the time of Sir Thomas More, an anecdote in whose chancellorship thus illustrates it. An attorney in his court, named Tubb, gave an account in court of a cause in which he was concerned, which the Chancellor (who, with all his gentleness, loved a joke) thought so rambling and incoherent, that he said at the end of Tubb's speech, "This is _a tale of a Tubb_;" plainly showing that the phrase was then familiarly known. EDWARD F. RIMBAULT. 58. _Cleopatra's Needle._--When was the obelisk in Egypt first so called? Why was it so called? What is the most popular work on Egypt for a full description of it? J. B. J. Liverpool, July 28. 1851.