The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb
Chapter 401 : ["Your kind sonnet." Barton's well-known sonnet to Elia (quoted below)

["Your kind sonnet." Barton's well-known sonnet to Elia (quoted below) had been printed in the _London Magazine_ long before--in the previous February. I do not identify this one among his writings.

"I have a Cottage." This cottage still stands (1912). Within it is much as in Lamb's day, but outwardly changed, for a new house has been built on one side and it is thus no longer detached. The New River still runs before it, but subterraneously.

Barton was so attracted by one at least of Lamb's similes that, I fancy, he borrowed it for an account of his grandfather's house at Tottenham which he wrote some time later; for I find that gentleman's garden described as "equal to that of old Alcinous."

"Kind light hearted Wainwright." Lamb has caused much surprise by using such words of one who was destined to become almost the most cold-blooded criminal in English history; but, as Hartley Coleridge wrote in another connection, it was Lamb's way to take things by the better handle, and Wainewright's worst faults in those days seem to have been extravagance and affectation. Lamb at any rate liked him and Wainewright was proud to be on a footing with Elia and his sister, as we know from his writings. Wainewright at this time was not quite twenty-nine; he had painted several pictures, some of which were accepted by the academy, and he had written a number of essays over several different pseudonyms, chief of which was Ja.n.u.s Weatherc.o.c.k. He lived in Great Marlborough Street in some style and there entertained many literary men, among them Lamb. It was not until 1826 that his criminal career began.

"Mr. Pulham"--Brook Pulham of the India House, who made the caricature etching of Elia.

"While I watch my tulips." Lamb is, of course, embroidering here, but we have it on the authority of George Daniel, the antiquary, that with his removal to Colebrooke Cottage began an interest in horticulture, particularly in roses.

"Mr. Cary." The Rev. Henry Francis Cary (1772-1844), the translator of Dante and afterwards, 1826, a.s.sistant-Keeper of the Printed Books in the British Museum. A regular contributor to the _London Magazine_.]

LETTER 325

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ALLSOP

[Dated at end: Sept. 6 (1823).]

Dear Alsop--I am snugly seated at the cottage; Mary is well but weak, and comes home on _Monday_; she will soon be strong enough to see her friends here. In the mean time will you dine with me at 1/2 past four to-morrow? Ayrton and Mr. Burney are coming.

Colebrook Cottage, left hand side, end of Colebrook Row on the western brink of the New River, a detach'd whitish house.

No answer is required but come if you can. C. LAMB.

Sat.u.r.day 6th Sep.

I call'd on you on Sunday. Resp'cts to Mrs. A. & boy.

LETTER 326

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ALLSOP

[P.M. Sept. 9, 1823.]

My dear A.--I am going to ask you to do me the greatest favour which a man can do to another. I want to make my will, and to leave my property in trust for my sister. _N.B._ I am not _therefore_ going to die.--Would it be unpleasant for you to be named for one? The other two I shall beg the same favor of are Talfourd and Proctor. If you feel reluctant, tell me, and it sha'n't abate one jot of my friendly feeling toward you.

Yours ever, C. LAMB.

E.I. House, Aug. [_i.e_., Sept.] 9, 1823.

LETTER 327

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ALLSOP

[P.M. September 10, 1823.]

My dear A.--Your kindness in accepting my request no words of mine can repay. It has made you overflow into some romance which I should have check'd at another time. I hope it may be in the scheme of Providence that my sister may go first (if ever so little a precedence), myself next, and my good Ex'rs survive to remembr us with kindness many years.

G.o.d bless you.

I will set Proctor about the will forthwith. C. LAMB.

[Here should come another note to Allsop dated Sept. 16, 1823, saying that Mary Lamb is still ill at Fulham. Given in the Boston Bibliophile edition.]

LETTER 328

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ALLSOP

[September, 1823.]

Dear A.--Your Cheese is the best I ever tasted; Mary will tell you so hereafter. She is at home, but has disappointed me. She has gone back rather than improved. However, she has sense enough to value the present, for she is greatly fond of Stilton. Yours is the delicatest rain-bow-hued melting piece I ever flavoured. Believe me. I took it the more kindly, following so great a kindness.

Depend upon't, yours shall be one of the first houses we shall present ourselves at, when we have got our Bill of Health.

Being both yours and Mrs. Allsop's truly. C.L. & M.L.

[Allsop and Procter may have been named as executors of Lamb's will at one time, but when it came to be proved the executors were Talfourd and Ryle, a fellow-clerk in the India House.]

LETTER 329

CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON

[P.M. September 17, 1823.]

Dear Sir--I have again been reading your stanzas on Bloomfield, which are the most appropriate that can be imagined, sweet with Doric delicacy. I like that

Our more chaste Theocritus--

just hinting at the fault of the Grecian. I love that stanza ending with

Words phrases fas.h.i.+ons pa.s.s away; But Truth and nature live through all.

But I shall omit in my own copy the one stanza which alludes to Lord B.--I suppose. It spoils the sweetness and oneness of the feeling.

Cannot we think of Burns, or Thompson, without sullying the thought with a reflection out of place upon Lord Rochester? These verses might have been inscribed upon a tomb; are in fact an epitaph; satire does not look pretty upon a tombstone. Besides, there is a quotation in it, always bad in verse; seldom advisable in prose.

I doubt if their having been in a Paper will not prevent T. and H. from insertion, but I shall have a thing to send in a day or two, and shall try them. Omitting that stanza, a _very little_ alteration is want'g in the beginn'g of the next. You see, I use freedom. How happily (I flatter not!) you have bro't in his subjects; and, (_I suppose_) his favorite measure, though I am not acquainted with any of his writings but the Farmer's Boy. He dined with me once, and his manners took me exceedingly.