d gentle Elia:--

"Farewell, dear friend; that smile, that harmless mirth,
No more shall gladden our domestic hearth;
That rising tear, with pain forbid to flow,
Better than words, no more assuage our woe;
That hand outstretch'd from small but well-earn'd store,
Yield succour to the destitute no more.

Yet art thou not all lost; thro' many an age
With sterling sense and humour shall thy page
Win many an English bosom, pleased to see
That old and happier vein revived in thee.
This for our earth, and if with friends we share
Our joys in heav'n, we hope to meet thee there."

I have heard it conjectured that the above were written by Wordsworth. I
shall feel obliged if any of your readers will inform me whether the late
laureate was the author of them or not?

MARIA S.

Edmonton.

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_M. or N._ (Vol. i., p. 415.; Vol. ii., p. 61.).--There have been several
suggestions as to the origin of the use of these letters in the services of
the church, but I do not think that any correspondent has hit upon the very
simple one which I have always considered to be most probably the true
explanation; which is, that as these services were compiled when algebra
stood much higher in the rank of sciences than it does at present, it is by
no means unlikely that these two letters should be used to signify
indefinite and variable _names_, as they are in algebra to represent
indefinite or variable _numbers_, in the same manner as A. B. C. are as
signs of known or definite, and X. Y. Z. of unknown sums.

E. H. Y.

_Henry VIII. and Sir Thos. Curwen._--The following quaint extract from
Sandford's MS. _History of Cumberland_, now in the library of the Dean and
Chapter of Carlisle, exhibits that "reknowned king," Henry VIII., in so
good-natured a light, that I think, if you can find a corner for it, it may
amuse some of your readers. That the good knight and "excelent archer"
should have been so outwitted by his son-in-law is a matter of some regret
to one of his descendants:--

"Sir Thos. Curwen, Knight, in Henry the Eight's time, an excelent
archer at twelvescore merks; and went up with his men to shoote with
that reknowned King at the dissolution of abbeys: and the King says to
him, Curwen, why doth thee begg none of these Abbeys? I wold gratify
thee some way. Quoth the other, Thank yow, and afterward said he wold
desire of him the Abbie of ffurness (nye unto him) for 20^{ty} one