There is a sort of mystery attached to this legend or story, as to the authorship of it, that requires some clearing up.

The first time I read it was in T. C. Croker's "Fairy Legends," which appeared in 1825, 3 vols. small 8vo.; but what the editor or writer calls a compressed edition, forms a volume of "Murray's Family Library," and was published in 1834. At page 134 of this latter edition the story commences, as if narrated by Daniel himself, and the writer says, "I knew the man well,—an old man was he at the time he told me the story, and it was on the 25th of June, 1813, that I heard it from his own lips."

All this seems very circumstantial, but it is somewhat singular that this same story, with very slight variation, is to be found in the 18th volume of Dr. Anderson's "Bee," for January, 1794, p. 338, the party communicating it, saying, "The inclosed is genuine, and I honour the lady who had the merit of putting it in writing."

There is also some account of its previous publication, communicated in the 34th volume of the "Dublin University Magazine," p. 202, but not having the volume at hand, I do not recollect the particulars, my chief object being to refer to Prior's "Memoir of the Life of Burke," third edition, 1839, at p. 100 of which we are distinctly told that Mr. Doyle, a surgeon, of Dublin, was the author of Daniel O'Rourke's Dream.

Now it is right that the real author should not be deprived of the merit of a story, which has even been translated into French, and published in the "Magasin Pittoresque" for 1843, with two humorous wood cuts.

Oak House.