“The Englishman's Magazine," obtained his aid as a contributor of miscellaneous articles, which were arranged to appear under the comprehensive title of "Peter's Net." The following accompanied his first contribution, in which some reminiscences of the Royal Academy were enshrined.

"Dear M.,-The R.A. here memorised was George Dawe, whom I knew well, and heard many anecdotes of, from DANIELS and WESTALL, at H. Rogers's; to each of them it will be well to send a magazine in my name.' It will fly like wildfire among the Royal Academicians and artists. Could you get hold of Procter ?-his chambers are in Lincoln's Inn, at Montague's; or of Janus Weathercock ? 2—both of their prose is capital. Don't encourage poetry. The 'Peter's Net' does not intend funny things only. All is fish. And leave out the sickening 'Elia' at the end. Then it may

comprise letters and characters addressed to Peter; but a signature forces it to be all characteristic of the one man— Elia, or the one man Peter, which cramped me formerly. I have agreed not for my sister to know the subjects I choose, till the magazine comes out; so beware of speaking of 'em, or writing about 'em, save generally. Be particular about this warning. Can't you drop in some afternoon, and take a bed? The Athenæum' has been hoaxed with some exquisite poetry, that was, two or three months ago, in Hone's Book. I like your first number capitally. But is Come and see us-week-day, if possible.

not it small?

66

Send, or bring me, Hone's number for August. The anecdotes of E. and of G. D. are substantially true; what does Elia (or Peter) care for dates ?

"The poem I mean is in Hone's Book as far back as April. I do not know who wrote it; but 'tis a poem I

1

[The number of the "Englishman's Magazine," with the paper entitled "Recollections of a late Royal Academician." See "Mary and Charles Lamb," 1874, pp. 286-94, where it is reprinted.]

2

[Wainewright.]

3 [Elliston the actor and George Dyer.]

envy—that and Montgomery's 'Last Man:' I envy the writers, because I feel I could have done something like them. "C. L."

The following contains Lamb's characteristic acknowledgment of a payment on account of these articles.

TO MR. MOXON.

66

'Sept. 5th, 1831.
I am

"Dear M.,-Your letter's contents pleased me. only afraid of taxing you. Yet I want a stimulus, or I think I should drag sadly. I shall keep the moneys in trust, till I see you fairly over the next 1st January. Then I shall look upon 'em as earned. No part of your letter gave me more pleasure (no, not the £10, tho' you may grin) than that you will revisit old Enfield, which I hope will be always a pleasant idea to you.

66

"Yours, very faithfully,

"C. L."

The Lambs were at Margate again in 1831. It was there that, thirty years before, they had enjoyed their yearly holiday, and going down in the old Hoy, had first seen the sea. Cowden Clarke was now staying with his father at Ramsgate, the latter having, on retirement from his school at Enfield, settled in this pleasant and healthy locality. In his "Recollections," he tells us how he went over, and saw the friends whom he had made ten years ago. "It seems,' he says, as if it were but yesterday that I noted his [Lamb's] eager way of telling me about an extraordinarily large whale that had been captured there, of its having created lively interest in the place, of its having been conveyed away in a strong cart, on which it lay a huge mass of colossal height, when he added with one of his sudden droll penetrating glances, The eye has just gone past our window.' It was while he was here that he received and declined an offer to write a paper for Taylor and Hessey's Magazine, and named Leigh Hunt as one who, in his opinion, would do it better.

6

"Dear Sir, I am extremely sorry to be obliged to decline the article proposed, as I should have been flattered with a Plate accompanying it. In the first place, Midsummer day is not a topic I could make anything of—I am so pure a Cockney, and little read, besides, in May games and antiquities; and, in the second, I am here at Margate, spoiling my holidays with a Review I have undertaken for a friend, which I shall barely get through before my return; for that sort of work is a hard task to me. If you will excuse the shortness of my first contribution-and I know I can promise nothing more for July-I will endeavour a longer article for our next. Will you permit me to say that I think Leigh Hunt would do the article you propose in a masterly manner, if he has not outwrit himself already upon the subject. I do not return the proof-to save postage because it is correct, with ONE EXCEPTION. In the stanza from Wordsworth, you have changed DAY into AIR for rhyme-sake: DAY is the right reading, and I IMPLORE you to restore it.

ས་

The other passage, which you have queried, is to my ear correct. Pray let it stand.

"D" ST, yours truly,

"C. LAMB.

"On second consideration, I do enclose the proof."

[Indorsed :]

"Messrs. Taylor and Hessey, Fleet Street, London.

"Only double.”

1 [F. W. Cosens, orig. The coolness with Taylor, mentioned in a

letter to Allsop in 1827, was perhaps forgotten.]

MOXON DEATH OF MUNDEN-LETTER TO LANDOR-NOTES TO MISS MATILDA BETHAM-LAST LETTER TO COLERIDGE.

[1831-2.]

THE HE "Englishman's Magazine," although enriched with Lamb's articles and some others of great merit, did not meet with a success so rapid as to requite the proprietor for the labour and anxiety of its production. The following is Lamb's letter, in reply to one announcing a determination to discontinue its publication

·

TO MR. MOXON.

"Oct. 24th, 1831.

"To address an abdicated monarch is a nice point of breeding. To give him his lost titles is to mock him; to withhold 'em is to wound him. But his minister, who falls with him, may be gracefully sympathetic. I do honestly feel for your diminution of honours, and regret even the pleasing cares which are part and parcel of greatness. Your magnanimous submission, and the cheerful tone of your renunciation, in a letter, which, without flattery, would have made an 'ARTICLE,' and which, rarely as I keep letters, shall be preserved, comfort me a little. Will it please or plague you to say that when your parcel came I cursed 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 ? Now any one calling in, or a letter coming, puts an end to my writing for the day. Little did I think that the mandate had gone out, so destructive to my occupation, so relieving to the apprehensions of the whole body of R.A.s; so you see I had not quitted the ship while a plank was remaining.

"To drop metaphors, I am sure you have done wisely. The very spirit of your epistle speaks that you have a weight off your mind. I have one on mine; the cash in hand, which, as less truly says, burns in my pocket. I feel queer at returning it, (who does not ?) you feel awkward at retaking it, (who ought not ?)—is there no middle way of adjusting this fine embarrassment? I think I have hit upon a medium to skin the sore place over, if not quite to heal it. You hinted that there might be something under 107., by and by, accruing to me-Devil's Money;' (you are sanguine, say 77. 10s.); that I entirely renounce, and abjure all future interest in: I insist upon it, and, ‘by him I will not name,' I won't touch a penny of it. That will split your loss one half, and leave me conscientious possessor of what I hold. Less than your assent to this, no proposal will I accept of.

"The Rev. Mr. [Scargill], whose name you have left illegible (is it Seagull ?) never sent me any book on Christ's Hospital, by which I could dream that I was indebted to him for a dedication. Did G. D. send his penny tract to me to convert me to Unitarianism? Dear, blundering soul! why I am as old a one-Goddite as himself. Or did he think his cheap publication would bring over the Methodists over the way here? 2 However, I'll give it to the pew opener, in whom I have a little interest, to hand over to the clerk, whose wife she sometimes drinks tea with, for him to lay before the deacon, who exchanges the civility of the hat with him, for to transmit to the minister, who shakes hands with him out of chapel, and he, in all odds, will light his pipe with it.

"I wish very much to see you. I leave it to you to come how you will; we shall be very glad (we need not repeat) to see your sister, or sisters, with you; but for you individually I will just hint that a dropping in to tea, unlooked for, about five, stopping bread-and-cheese and ginand-water, is worth a thousand Sundays. I am naturally miserable on a Sunday; but a week-day evening and supper is like old times. Set out now, and give no time to

deliberation.

1 ["Satan in Search of a Wife," 1831.]

2 Referring to a chapel opposite his lodging at Enfield.