Part 76 · The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb

The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 · Chapter 76Part 76

This chapter is not translated yet. You are reading the original.

No. II.—On the Total Defect of the faculty of Imagination observable in the works of modern British Artists.

For explanation of this title see note to the essay that follows. When reprinting the essay in the Last Essays of Elia, 1833, Lamb altered the title to the one it now bears: the period referred to thus seeming to be about 1798, but really 1801-1803.

Page 249, first line of essay. Dan Stuart. See below.

Page 249, line 2 of essay. The Exhibition at Somerset House. Between the years 1780 and 1838 the Royal Academy held its exhibitions at Somerset House. It then moved, first to Trafalgar Square, in a portion of the National Gallery, and then to Burlington House, its present quarters, in 1869. The Morning Post office is still almost opposite Somerset House, at the corner of Wellington Street.

Page 250, line 5. A word or two of D.S. Daniel Stuart (1766-1846), one of the Perthshire Stuarts, whose father was out in the '45, and his grandfather in the '15, began, with his brother, to print the Morning Post in 1788. In 1795 they bought it for £600, Daniel assumed the editorship, and in two years' time the circulation had risen from 350 to 1,000. Mackintosh (afterwards Sir James), Stuart's brother-in-law, was on the staff; and in 1797 Coleridge began to contribute. Coleridge's "Devil's Walk" was the most popular thing printed in Stuart's time; his political articles also helped enormously to give the paper prestige. Stuart sold the Morning Post in 1803 for £25,000, and then turned his attention to the development of The Courier, an evening paper, in which he also had occasional assistance from Coleridge and more regular help from Mackintosh.

Lamb's memory served him badly in the essay. So far as I can discover, his connection with the Morning Post, instead of ending when Stuart sold the paper, can hardly be said to have existed until after that event. The paper changed hands in September, 1803 (two years after the failure of The Albion), and Lamb's hand almost immediately begins to be apparent. He had, we know, made earlier efforts to get a footing there, but had been only moderately successful. The first specimens prepared for Stuart, in 1800, were not accepted. In the late summer of 1801 he was writing for the Morning Chronicle—a few comic letters, as I imagine—under James Perry; but that lasted only a short time. At the end of 1801 Lamb tried the Post again. In January and February, 1802, Stuart printed some epigrams by him on public characters, two criticisms of G.F. Cooke, in Richard III. and Lear, and the essay "The Londoner" (see Vol. I.). Probably there were also some paragraphs. In a letter to Rickman in January, 1802, Lamb says that he is leaving the Post, partly on account of his difficulty in writing dramatic criticisms on the same night as the performance.

We know nothing of Lamb's journalistic adventures between February, 1802, and October, 1803, when the fashion of pink stockings came in, and when he was certainly back on the Post (Stuart having sold it to establish The Courier), and had become more of a journalist than he had ever been. I quote a number of the paragraphs which I take to be his on this rich topic; but the specimen given in the essay is not discoverable:—

"Oct. 8.—The fugitive and mercurial matter, of which a Lady's blush is made, after coursing from its natural position, the cheek, to the tip of the elbow, and thence diverging for a time to the knee, has finally settled in the legs, where, in the form of a pair of red hose, it combines with the posture and situation of the times, to put on a most warlike and martial appearance."

"Nov. 2.—Bartram, who, as a traveller, was possessed of a very lively fancy, describes vast plains in the interior of America, where his horse's fetlocks for miles were dyed a perfect blood colour, in the juice of the wild strawberries. A less ardent fancy than BARTRAM'S may apply this beautiful phenomenon of summer, to solve the present strawberry appearance of the female leg this autumn in England."

"Nov. 3.—The roseate tint, so agreeably diffused through the silk stockings of our females, induces the belief that the dye is cast for their lovers."

"Nov. 8.—A popular superstition in the North of Germany is said to be the true original of the well-known sign of Mother REDCAP. Who knows but that late posterity, when, what is regarded by us now as fashion, shall have long been classed among the superstitious observances of an age gone by, may dignify their signs with the antiquated personification of a Mother RED LEGS?"

"Nov. 9.—Curiosity is on tip-toe for the arrival of ELPHY BEY'S fair Circassian Ladies. The attraction of their naturally-placed, fine, proverbial bloom, is only wanting to reduce the wandering colour in the 'elbows' and 'ancles' of our belles, back to its native metropolis and palace, the 'cheek.'"

"Nov. 22.—Pink stockings beneath dark pelices are emblems of Sincerity and Discretion; signifying a warm heart beneath a cool exterior."

"Nov. 29.—The decline of red stockings is as fatal to the wits, as the going out of a fashion to an overstocked jeweller: some of these gentry have literally for some months past fed on roses."

"Dec. 21.—The fashion of red stockings, so much cried down, dispraised, and followed, is on the eve of departing, to be consigned to the family tomb of 'all the fashions,' where sleep in peace the ruffs and hoops, and fardingales of past centuries; and

"All its beauty, all its pomp, decays Like Courts removing, or like ending plays."

On February 7, 1804, was printed Lamb's "Epitaph on a young Lady who Lived Neglected and Died Obscure" (see Vol. IV.), and now and then we find a paragraph likely to be his; but, as we know from a letter from Mary Lamb to Sarah Stoddart, he had left the Post in the early spring, 1804. I think this was the end of his journalism, until he began to write a little for The Examiner in 1812.

In 1838 Stuart was drawn into a correspondence with Henry Coleridge in the Gentleman's Magazine (May, June, July and August) concerning some statements about Coleridge's connection with the Morning Post and The Courier which were made in Gillman's Life, Stuart, in the course of straightening out his relations with Coleridge, referred thus to Lamb:—

But as for good Charles Lamb, I never could make anything out of his writings. Coleridge often and repeatedly pressed me to settle him on a salary, and often and repeatedly did I try; but it would not do. Of politics he knew nothing; they were out of his line of reading and thought; and his drollery was vapid, when given in short paragraphs fit for a newspaper; yet he has produced some agreeable books, possessing a tone of humour and kind feeling, in a quaint style, which it is amusing to read, and cheering to remember.

For further remarks concerning Lamb's journalism see below when we come to The Albion and his connection with it.

Page 250, line 6. Perry, of the Morning Chronicle. James Perry (1756-1821) the editor of the Morning Chronicle—the leading Whig paper, for many years—from about 1789. Perry was a noted talker and the friend of many brilliant men, among them Porson. Southey's letters inform us that Lamb was contributing to the Chronicle in the summer of 1801, and I fancy I see his hand now and then; but his identifiable contributions to the paper came much later than the period under notice. Coleridge contributed to it a series of sonnets to eminent persons in 1794, in one of which, addressed to Mrs. Siddons, he collaborated with Lamb (see Vol. IV.).

Page 250, line 14. The Abyssinian Pilgrim. For notes to this passage about the New River see the essay "Amicus Redivivus."

Page 250, foot. In those days … This paragraph began, in the Englishman's Magazine, with the following sentence:—

"We ourself—PETER—in whose inevitable NET already Managers and R.A.s lie caught and floundering—and more peradventure shall flounder—were, in the humble times to which we have been recurring, small Fishermen indeed, essaying upon minnows; angling for quirks, not men."

The phrase "Managers and R.A.s" refers to the papers on Elliston and George Dawe which had preceded this essay, although the Elliston essay had not been ranged under the heading "Peter's Net." The George Dawe paper is in Vol. I. of this edition.

Page 252, line 25. Basilian water-sponges. The Basilian order of monks were pledged to austerity; but probably Lamb intended merely a joke upon his friend Basil Montagu's teetotalism (see note in Vol. I. to "Confessions of a Drunkard," a paper quoted in Montagu's Some Enquiries into the Effects of Fermented Liquors). In John Forster's copy of the Last Essays of Elia, in the South Kensington Museum, a legacy from Elia, there is written "Basil Montagu!" against this passage. Moreover the context runs, "we were right toping Capulets"—as opposed to the (Basil) Montagus.

Page 253, line 23. Bob Allen. See the essay on "Christ's Hospital" and note.

Page 253, line 24. The "Oracle." This daily paper was started in the 1780's by Peter Stuart, Daniel Stuart's brother, as a rival to The World (see below).

Page 253, line 31. Mr. Deputy Humphreys. I am disappointed to have been able to find nothing more about this Common Council butt.

Page 254, lines 11 and 12. The "True Briton," the "Star," the "Traveller." The True Briton, a government organ in the 1790's, which afterwards assimilated Cobbett's Porcupine. The Star was founded by Peter Stuart, Daniel Stuart's brother, in 1788. It was the first London evening paper to appear regularly. The Traveller, founded about 1803, still flourishes under the better-known title of The Globe.

Page 254, lines 24-26. Este … Topham … Boaden. Edward Topham (1751-1820), author of the Life of John Elwes, the miser, founded The World, a daily paper, in 1787. Parson Este, the Rev. Charles Este, was one of his helpers. James Boaden (1762-1839), dramatist, biographer and journalist, and editor of The Oracle for some years, wrote the Life of Mrs. Siddons, 1827.

Page 254, foot. The Albion. Lamb's memory of his connection with The Albion was at fault. His statement is that he joined it on the sale of the Morning Post by Stuart, which occurred in 1803; but as a matter of fact his association with it was in 1801. This we know from his letters to Manning in August of that year, quoting the epigram on Mackintosh (see below) and announcing the paper's death. Mackintosh, says Lamb, was on the eve of departing to India to reap the fruits of his apostasy—referring to his acceptance of the post of Recordership of Bombay offered to him by Addington. But this was a slip of memory. Mackintosh's name had been mentioned in connection with at least two posts before this—a judgeship in Trinidad and the office of Advocate-General in Bengal, and Lamb's epigram may have had reference to one or the other. In the absence of a file of The Albion, which I have been unable to find, it is impossible to give exact dates or to reproduce any of Lamb's other contributions.

Page 255, line 6. John Fenwick. See the essay "The Two Races of Men," and note. Writing to Manning on September 24, 1802, Lamb describes Fenwick as a ruined man hiding from his creditors. In January, 1806, he tells Stoddart that Fenwick is "coming to town on Monday (if no kind angel intervene) to surrender himself to prison." And we meet him again as late as 1817, in a letter to Barron Field, on August 31, where his editorship of The Statesman is mentioned. In Mary Lamb's letters to Sarah Stoddart there are indications that Mrs. Fenwick and family were mindful of the Lambs' charitable impulses.

After "Fenwick," in the Englishman's Magazine, Lamb wrote: "Of him, under favour of the public, something may be told hereafter." It is sad that the sudden discontinuance of the magazine with this number for ever deprived us of further news of this man.

Page 255, line 11. Lovell. Daniel Lovell, subsequently owner and editor of The Statesman, which was founded by John Hunt, Leigh Hunt's brother, in 1806. He had a stormy career, much chequered by imprisonment and other punishment for freedom of speech. He died in 1818.

Page 255, line 20. Daily demands of the Stamp Office. The newspaper stamp in those days was threepence-halfpenny, raised in 1815 to fourpence. In 1836 it was reduced to a penny, and in 1855 abolished.

Page 255, line 28. Accounted very good men now. A hit, I imagine, particularly at Southey (see note to "The Tombs in the Abbey"). Also at Wordsworth and Mackintosh himself.

Page 256, line 3. Sir J——s M——h. Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832), the philosopher, whose apostasy consisted in his public recantation of the opinions in favour of the French Revolution expressed in his Vindiciæ Gallicæ, published in 1791. In 1803 he accepted the offer of the Recordership of Bombay. Lamb's epigram, which, as has been stated above, cannot have had reference to this particular appointment, runs thus in the version quoted in the letter to Manning of August, 1801:—

Though thou'rt like Judas, an apostate black, In the resemblance one thing thou dost lack: When he had gotten his ill-purchased pelf, He went away, and wisely hang'd himself: This thou may'st do at last; yet much I doubt, If thou hash any bowels to gush out.

Page 256, line 6. Lord … Stanhope. This was Charles, third earl (1753-1816), whose sympathies were with the French Revolution. His motion in the House of Lords against interfering with France's internal affairs was supported by himself alone, which led to a medal being struck in his honour with the motto, "The Minority of One, 1795;" and he was thenceforward named "Minority," or "Citizen," Stanhope. George Dyer, who had acted as tutor to his children, was one of Stanhope's residuary legatees.

Page 256, line 10. It was about this time … With this sentence Lamb brought back his essay to its original title, and paved the way for the second part—now printed under that heading.

At the end of this paper, in the Englishman's Magazine, were the words, "To be continued." For the further history of the essay see the notes that follow.

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Page 256. BARRENNESS OF THE IMAGINATIVE FACULTY IN THE PRODUCTIONS OF MODERN ART.

Athenæum, January 12, 19, 26, and February 2, 1833, where it was thus entitled: "On the Total Defects of the Quality of Imagination, observable in the Works of Modern British Artists." By the Author of the Essays signed "Elia."

The following editorial note was prefixed to the first instalment:—"This Series of Papers was intended for a new periodical, which has been suddenly discontinued. The distinguished writer having kindly offered them to the ATHENÆUM, we think it advisable to perfect the Series by this reprint; and, from the limited sale of the work in which it originally appeared, it is not likely to have been read by one in a thousand of our subscribers."

The explanation of this passage has been made simple by the researches of the late Mr. Dykes Campbell. Lamb intended the essay originally for the Englishman's Magazine, November number, to follow the excursus on newspapers. But that magazine came to an end with the October number. In the letter from Lamb to Moxon dated October 24, 1831, Lamb says, referring to Moxon's announcement that the periodical would cease:—"Will it please, or plague, you, to say that when your Parcel came I damned it, for my pen was warming in my hand at a ludicrous description of a Landscape of an R.A., which I calculated upon sending you to morrow, the last day you gave me."

That was the present essay. Subsequently—at the end of 1832—Moxon started a weekly paper entitled The Reflector, edited by John Forster, in which the printing of Lamb's essay was begun. It lasted only a short time, and on its cessation Lamb sent the ill-fated manuscript to The Athenæum, where it at last saw publication completed. Of The Reflector all trace seems to have vanished, and with it possibly other writings of Lamb's.

In The Athenæum of December 22, 1832, the current Reflector (No. 2) is advertised as containing "An Essay on Painters and Painting by Elia."

Page 256, line 1 of essay. Hogarth. Compare Lamb's criticism of Hogarth, Vol. I.

Page 256, foot. Titian's "Ariadne." This picture is now No. 35 in the National Gallery. Writing to Wordsworth in May, 1833, it is amusing to note, Lamb says: "Inter nos the Ariadne is not a darling with me, several incongruous things are in it, but in the composition it served me as illustrative." The legend of Ariadne tells that after being abandoned by Theseus, whom she loved with intense passion, she was wooed by Bacchus.

Page 258, line 2. Somerset House. See note above to the essay on "Newspapers."

Page 258, line 14. Neoteric … Mr. ——. Probably J.M.W. Turner and his "Garden of the Hesperides," now in the National Gallery. It is true it was painted in 1806, but Lamb does not describe it as a picture of the year and Turner was certainly the most notable neoteric, or innovator, of that time.

Page 259, line 1. Of a modern artist. In The Athenæum this had been printed "of M——," meaning John Martin (1789-1854). His "Belshazzar's Feast," which Lamb analyses below, was painted in 1821, and made him famous. It was awarded a £200 premium, and was copied on glass and exhibited with great success as an illuminated transparency in the Strand. Lord Lytton said of Martin that "he was more original, more self-dependent, than Raphael or Michael Angelo." Lamb had previously expressed his opinion of Martin, in a letter to Bernard Barton, dated June 11, 1827, in a passage which contains the germ of this essay:—"Martin's Belshazzar (the picture) I have seen. Its architectural effect is stupendous; but the human figures, the squalling, contorted little antics that are playing at being frightened, like children at a sham ghost who half know it to be a mask, are detestable. Then the letters are nothing more than a transparency lighted up, such as a Lord might order to be lit up on a sudden at a Christmas Gambol, to scare the ladies. The type is as plain as Baskervil—they should have been dim, full of mystery, letters to the mind rather than the eye."

Page 259, line 13. The late King. George IV., who built, when Prince of Wales, the Brighton Pavilion. As I cannot find this incident in any memoirs of the Regency, I assume Lamb to have invented it, after his wont, when in need of a good parallel. "Mrs. Fitz-what's-her-name" stands of course for Mrs. Fitzherbert.

Page 259, line 33. The ingenious Mr. Farley. Charles Farley (1771-1859), who controlled the pantomimes at Covent Garden from 1806 to 1834, and invented a number of mechanical devices for them. He also acted, and had been the instructor of the great Grimaldi. Lamb alludes to him in the essay on "The Acting of Munden."

Page 262, line 10. "Sun, stand thou still …" See Joshua x. 12. Martin's picture of "Joshua commanding the Sun to stand still" was painted in 1816. Writing to Barton, in the letter quoted from above, Lamb says: "Just such a confus'd piece is his Joshua, fritter'd into 1000 fragments, little armies here, little armies there—you should see only the Sun and Joshua … for Joshua, I was ten minutes finding him out."

Page 262, line 29. The great picture at Angerstein's. This picture is "The Resurrection of Lazarus," by Fra Sebastiano del Piombo, with the assistance, it is conjectured, of Michael Angelo. The picture is now No. 1 in the National Gallery, the nucleus of which collection was once the property of John Julius Angerstein (1735-1823). Angerstein's art treasures were to be seen until his death in his house in Pall Mall, where the Reform Club now stands.

Page 263, line 35. The Frenchmen, of whom Coleridge's friend. See the Biographia Literaria, 1847 ed., Vol. II., pp. 126-127.

Page 265, line 5. "Truly, fairest Lady …" The passage quoted by Lamb is from Skeltoa's translation of Don Quixote, Part II., Chapter LVIII. The first sentence runs: "Truly, fairest Lady, Actæon was not more astonished or in suspense when on the sodaine he saw Diana," and so forth.

Page 266, line 9. "Guzman de Alfarache." The Picaresque romance by Mateo Aleman—Vida y Lechos del picaro Guzman de Alfarache, Part I., 1599; Part II., 1605. It was translated into English by James Mabbe in 1622 as The Rogue; or, The Life of Guzman de Alfarache. Lamb had a copy, which is now in my possession, with Mary Lamb's name in it.

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Page 266. REJOICINGS UPON THE NEW YEAR'S COMING OF AGE.

London Magazine, January, 1823.

This paper, being printed in the same number as that which announced Elia's death, was signed "Elia's Ghost."

Lamb returned to this vein of fancy two years or so later when (in 1825) he contributed to his friend William Hone's Every-Day Book the petition of the Twenty-Ninth of February, a day of which Hone had taken no account, and of the Twelfth of August, which from being kept as the birthday of King George IV. during the time that he was Prince of Wales, was, on his accession to the throne, disregarded in favour of April 23, St. George's Day. For these letters see Vol. I. of this edition.

Page 271, line 15. "On the bat's back …" From Ariel's song in "The Tempest." Lamb confesses, in at least two of his letters, to a precisely similar plight.

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Page 271. THE WEDDING.

London Magazine, June, 1825.

The wedding was that of Sarah Burney, daughter of Lamb's old friends, Rear-Admiral James Burney and his wife Sarah Burney, to her cousin, John Payne, of Pall Mall, at St. Margaret's, Westminster, in April, 1821. The clergyman was the Rev. C.P. Burney, who was not, however, vicar of St. Mildred's in the Poultry, but of St. Paul's, Deptford, in Kent. Admiral Burney lived only six months longer, dying in November.

Canon Ainger pointed out that when Lamb was revising this essay for its appearance in the Last Essays of Elia, he was, like the admiral, about to lose by marriage Emma Isola, who was to him and his sister what Miss Burney had been to her parents. She married Edward Moxon in July, 1833.

Page 274, line 8. An unseasonable disposition to levity. Writing to P.G. Patmore in 1827 Lamb says: "I have been to a funeral, where I made a pun, to the consternation of the rest of the mourners." Again, writing to Southey: "I am going to stand godfather; I don't like the business; I cannot muster up decorum for these occasions; I shall certainly disgrace the font; I was at Hazlitt's marriage and was like to have been turned out several times during the ceremony. Anything awful makes me laugh. I misbehaved once at a funeral."

Page 274, line 24. Miss T——s. In the London Magazine "Miss Turner's."

Page 274, line 27. Black … the costume of an author. See note below.

Page 274, line 29. Lighter colour. Here the London Magazine had: "a pea-green coat, for instance, like the bridegroom."

Page 274, line 34. A lucky apologue. I do not find this fable; but Lamb's father, in his volume of poems, described in a note on page 381, has something in the same manner in his ballad "The Sparrow's Wedding":—

The chatt'ring Magpye undertook Their wedding breakfast for to cook, He being properly bedight In a cook's cloathing, black and white.

Page 275, foot. The Admiral's favourite game. Admiral Burney wrote a treatise on whist (see notes to "Mrs. Battle's Opinions on Whist").

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Page 276. THE CHILD ANGEL.

London Magazine, June, 1823.

Thomas Moore's Loves of the Angels was published in 1823. Lamb used it twice for his own literary purposes: on the present occasion, with tenderness, and again, eight years later, with some ridicule, for his comic ballad, "Satan in Search of a Wife," 1831, was ironically dedicated to the admirers of Moore's poem (see Vol. IV.).

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Page 279. A DEATH-BED.

Hone's Table Book, Vol. I., cols. 425-426, 1827. Signed "L.," and dated London, February 10, 1827. The essay is very slightly altered from a letter written by Lamb to Crabb Robinson, January 20, 1827, describing the death of Randal Morris. It was printed in the first edition only of the Last Essays of Elia; its place being taken afterwards by the "Confessions of a Drunkard," an odd exchange. The essay was omitted, in deference, it is believed, to the objection of Mrs. Norris to her reduced circumstances being made public. As the present edition adheres to the text of the first edition, "The Death-Bed" is included in its original place as decided by the author. The "Confessions of a Drunkard" will be found in Vol. I.

Randal Norris was for many years sub-treasurer of the Inner Temple (see postscript to the essay on the "Old Benchers"). Writing to Wordsworth in 1830 Lamb spoke of him as "sixty years ours and our father's friend." An attempt has been made to identify him with the Mr. Norris of Christ's Hospital who was so kind to the Lambs after the tragedy of September, 1796. I cannot find any trace of Randal Norris having been connected with anything but the law and the Inner Temple; but possibly the Mr. Norris of the school was a relative.

Mrs. Randal Norris was connected with Widford, the village adjoining Blakesware, where she had known Mary Field, Lamb's grandmother. It was thither that she and her son retired after Randal Norris's death, to join her daughters, Miss Betsy and Miss Jane, who had a school for girls known as Goddard House School. Lamb kept up his friendship with them to the end, and they corresponded with Mary Lamb after his death. Mrs. Norris died in 1843, aged seventy-eight, and was buried at Widford. The grave of Richard Norris, the son, is also there. He died in 1836. One of the daughters, Elizabeth, married Charles Tween, of Widford, and lived until 1894. The other daughter, Jane, married Arthur Tween, his brother, and lived until 1891.

Mary Lamb was a bridesmaid at the Norris's wedding and after the ceremony accompanied the bride and bridegroom to Richmond for the day. So one of their daughters told Canon Ainger.

Crabb Robinson seems to have exerted himself for the family, as Lamb wished. Mr. W.C. Hazlitt says that an annuity of £80 was settled upon Mrs. Norris.

Page 279, last line. To the last he called me Jemmy. In the letter to Crabb Robinson—"To the last he called me Charley. I have none to call me Charley now."

Page 280, line 2. That bound me to B——. In the letter to Crabb Robinson—"that bound me to the Temple."

Page 280, line 14. Your Corporation Library. In the letter—"The Temple Library."

Page 280, line 19. He had one Song. Garrick's "Hearts of Oak."

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Page 281. OLD CHINA.

London Magazine, March, 1823.

This essay forms a pendant, or complement, to "Mackery End in Hertfordshire," completing the portrait of Mary Lamb begun there. It was, with "The Wedding," Wordsworth's favourite among the Last Essays.

Page 282, line 23. The brown suit. P.G. Patmore, in his recollections of Lamb in the Court Journal, 1835, afterwards reprinted, with some alterations, in his My Friends and Acquaintances, stated that Lamb laid aside his snuff-coloured suit in favour of black, after twenty years of the India House; and he suggests that Wordsworth's stanzas in "A Poet's Epitaph" was the cause:—

But who is he, with modest looks, And clad in homely russet brown? He murmurs near the running brooks A music sweeter than their own.

He is retired as noontide dew, Or fountain in a noon-day grove; And you must love him, ere to you He will seem worthy of your love.

Whatever Patmore's theory may be worth, it is certain that Lamb adhered to black after the change.

Page 282, line 25. Beaumont and Fletcher. See note to "Books and Reading."

Page 282, line 27. Barker's. Barker's old book-shop was at No. 20 Great Russell Street, over which the Lambs went to live in 1817. It had then, however, become Mr. Owen's, a brazier's (Wheatley's London Past and Present gives Barker's as 19, but a contemporary directory says 20). Great Russell Street is now Russell Street.

Page 282, line 30. From Islington. This would be when Lamb and his sister lived at 36 Chapel Street, Pentonville, a stone's throw from the Islington boundary, in 1799-1800, after the death of their father.

Page 283, line 11. The "Lady Blanch." See Mary Lamb's poem on this picture, Vol. IV. and note.

Page 283, line 15. Colnaghi's. Colnaghi, the printseller, then in Cockspur Street, now Pall Mall East. After this word came in the London Magazine "(as W—— calls it)." The reference, Mr. Rogers Rees tells me, is to Wainewright's article "C. van Vinkbooms, his Dogmas for Dilletanti," in the same magazine for December, 1821, where he wrote: "I advise Colnaghi and Molteno to import a few impressions immediately of those beautiful plates from Da Vinci. The … and Miss Lamb's favourite, 'Lady Blanche and the Abbess,' commonly called 'Vanitas et Modestia' (Campanella, los. ed.), for I foresee that this Dogma will occasion a considerable call for them—let them, therefore, be ready."

Page 283, line 5 from foot. To see a play. "The Battle of Hexham" and "The Surrender of Calais" were by George Colman the Younger; "The Children in the Wood," a favourite play of Lamb's, especially with Miss Kelly in it, was by Thomas Morton. Mrs. Bland was Maria Theresa Bland, née Romanzini, 1769-1838, who married Mrs. Jordan's brother. Jack Bannister we have met, in "The Old Actors."

Page 286, line 12. The Great yew R——. This would be Nathan Meyer Rothschild (1777-1836), the founder of the English branch of the family and the greatest financier of modern times.

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Page 286. POPULAR FALLACIES.

This series of little essays was printed in the New Monthly Magazine in 1826, beginning in January. The order of publication there was not the same as that in the Last Essays of Elia; one of the papers, "That a Deformed Person is a Lord," was not reprinted by Lamb at all (it will be found in Vol. I. of this edition); and two others were converted into separate essays (see "The Sanity of True Genius" and "The Genteel Style in Writing").

After Lamb's death a new series of Popular Fallacies was contributed to the New Monthly Magazine by L.B. (Laman Blanchard) in 1835, preceded by an invocation to the spirit of Charles Lamb.

Page 286. I.—THAT A BULLY is ALWAYS A COWARD.