_Lines by Lord Palmerston_ (Vol. i., p. 382.; Vol. ii., p. 30. Vol. iii.,
p. 28.).--In Vol. i., p. 328., INDAGATOR inquired whether there was any
{620} authority for attributing to the late Lord Palmerston the beautiful
lines on the loss of his lady, beginning,--
"Whoe'er like me his heart's whole treasure brings."
INDAGATOR says they have been supposed to be Hawksworth's and S. S. S.
(Vol. ii., p. 30.) that they have been also attributed to Mason. I can
state, _from the best authority_, that they are Lord Palmerston's. My
authority needs no extrinsic confirmation, but I may as well observe that
INDAGATOR has himself sufficiently disposed of Hawksworth's claim, as his
wife was still alive when the lines appeared; and the conjecture of S. S.
S. is obviously a confusion of Lord Palmerston's lines with those of
Mason's (whose wife died at Bristol), beginning--
"Take, holy earth, all that my soul holds dear."
But another of your correspondents, A. B. (Vol. iii., p. 28.), or your
printer, has made a mistake on this point which I cannot account for. A. B.
says that he inquired after the author of the lines beginning--
"Stranger, whoe'er thou art that viewest this tomb;"
and this statement is headed with a reference to INDAGATOR'S inquiry about
Lord Palmerston, to which it had no reference whatsoever. I do not remember
to have seen A. B.'s inquiry, but it assuredly has nothing to do with
INDAGATOR'S which I have now set at rest.