set the default font on a Gtk::Text widget

[Dirk Koopman <djk tobit co uk>]

I am a newbie, I have read as much of the documentation as I can find
but cannot find an answer to my problem.

How do I permanently set the default font of a Gtk::Text widget. I have
done:-

my $font =
Gtk::Gdk::Font->load("-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-*-130-*-*-c-*-koi8-r");
my $text = new Gtk::Text(undef,undef);
$text->style->font($font);
$text->show;

etc

This has no effect either for (default) output or for input. 

I can deal with output by:-

$text->insert($font, undef, undef, "foo");

but I cannot affect the input font on an editable window.

I have a supplimentary question:-

In an 'activate' callback how do I obtain the last line typed in by the
user? Oh and how do I make sure that the focus remains on the edittable
Gtk::Text window (there are two text widgets, one for display, one for
input [it is a classical chat type app]).

Regards

Dirk Koopman G1TLH