of similar announcements, be made available to the cause of literature.

J.F.M.

[We are much indebted to our valued correspondent for the offer he has
so kindly made us of the MS. Notes in question, which we shall gladly
receive; and also for his extremely useful suggestion of the advantage
of such notifications to intending editors, as he describes.]

_Milton's L'Allegro._--Your correspondent (No. 18. p. 286.) has been
anticipated by Headley, who suggested, long ago, that the word _tale_
here implied the _numbering_ sheep. When Handel composed his beautiful
air, "Let me wander not unseen," he plainly regarded this word in the
more poetical sense. The song breathes the shepherd's tale of _love_
(perhaps addressed to "the milkmaid singing blithe") far more than it
conveys a dull computation of the _number_ of "his fleecy care." Despite
of that excellent commentator, Tom Warton, who adopted Headley's
suggestion, it is to be hoped that readers will continue, though it may
be in error, to understand the line as your correspondent _used_ to do:
an amatory _tete-a-tete_ is surely better suited to "the hawthorn in the
dale," than either mental arithmetic, or the study of Cocker.

J.H.M.

* * * * *

DOCTOR DANIEL DOVE OF DONCASTER AND HIS HORSE NOBS--GOLDEN AGE OF
MAGAZINES.

It appears from the preface to the last edition of _The Doctor, &c._
that the story of Dr. Daniel Dove and his horse was one well known in
Southey's domestic circle.

A letter is there quoted from Mrs. Southey (then Miss Caroline Bowles),
in which she says:--

"There is a story of Dr. D.D. of D. and of his horse Nobs, which
has I believe been made into a Hawker's Book. Coleridge used to
tell it, and the humour lay in making it as long-winded as
possible; it suited, however, my long-windedness better than his,
and I was frequently called upon for it by those who enjoyed it,
and sometimes I volunteered it, when Coleridge protested against
its being told."

While upon the subject of _The Doctor_, may I direct your attention to
the following passage on p. 269. of the one volume edition, which you
will admit in many respects accurately describes your "NOTES AND
QUERIES"?

"Our Doctor flourished in the golden age of magazines, when their
pages were filled with voluntary contributions from men who never
aimed at dazzling the public, but each came with his scrap of