Don Horacio 



more than fifty years ago (185 1) in 

 Notes and Queries, in which peri- 

 odical the subject has since been 

 again and again discussed by many 

 correspondents." * 



Mr. Cutter's first conception of his 

 hoax was apparently quite impromptu, 

 intended only as a passing joke at the 

 expense of a fellow member of his 

 club, and probably without any ex- 

 pectation that it would be carried 

 further, still less that his little squib 

 would be heard around the. world. 



It appears that, somehow, there 

 had come to be a popular impression 

 that an eccentric individual had of- 

 fered a large reward for such infor- 

 mation concerning the quotation in 



* According to Bartlett, the much-quoted 

 line in question originated in a song, written 

 and composed by George Linley for Mr. Au- 

 gustus Braham, and sung by him in London, 

 probably about 1830; but certain correspon- 

 dents of Notes and Queries show that it was a 

 " familiar quotation " long before then. 

 66 



