The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb Volume IV Part 85

Page 105. _The First Leaf of Spring_.

Printed in _The Athenaeum_, January 10, 1846, contributed probably by Thomas Westwood. In a note prefacing the three poems which he was sending, this correspondent stated that "The First Leaf of Spring" had been printed before, but very obscurely. I have not discovered where.

Page 105. _To Mrs. F---- on Her Return from Gibraltar_.

This would probably be Mrs. Jane Field, _nee_ Carncroft, the wife of Lamb's friend, Barron Field, who inspired the _Elia_ essay on "Distant Correspondents." Field held the Chief Justices.h.i.+p of Gibraltar for some years.

Page 106. _To M. L---- F----_.

M.L. Field, the second daughter of Henry Field, and Barron Field's sister. This lady, who lived to a great age, gave Canon Ainger the copy of the prologue to "Richard II." written by Lamb for an amateur performance at her home.

Page 106. _To Esther Field_.

Another of Barron Field's sisters.

The text of these three poems has been corrected by the Thomas Hutchinson's Oxford edition.

Page 107. _To Mrs. Williams_.

See note above. In writing to Mrs. Williams on April 2, 1830, to tell of Emma Isola's safe journey after her illness, Lamb says:--"How I employed myself between Epping and Enfield the poor verses in the front of my paper may inform you, which you may please to christen an Acrostic in a Cross Road."

Mrs. Williams replied with the following acrostic upon Lamb's name, which Mr. Cecil Turner, a descendant, has sent me and which I give according to his copy:--

TO CHARLES LAMB

_Answer to Acrostics on the Names of Two Friends._

Charmed with the lines thy hand has sent, Honour I feel thy compliment, Amongst thy products that have won the ear Ranged in thy verse two friends most dear.

Lay not thy winning pen away, Each line thou writest we bid thee stay.

Still ask to charm us with another lay.

Long-linked, long-lived by public fame, A friend to misery whate'er its claim, Marvel I must if e'er we find Bestowed by Heaven a kindlier mind.

The two friends were Cecilia Catherine Lawton (see page 64) and Edward Hogg (see page 109). In reply Lamb says (Good Friday, 1830):--"I do a.s.sure you that your verses gratified me very much, and my sister is quite _proud_ of them. For the first time in my life I congratulated myself upon the shortness and meanness of my name. Had it been Schwartzenberg or Esterhazy it would have put you to some puzzle."

Later in the same letter, referring to the present acrostic, he said speaking of Harriet Isola, Emma's sister, she "blames my last verses as being more written on _Mr._ Williams than on yourself; but how should I have parted whom a Superior Power has brought together?"

Page 107. _To the Book_.

Written for the Alb.u.m of Sophia Elizabeth Frend, afterwards the wife of Augustus De Morgan, the mathematician (1806-1871), and mother of the novelist Mr. William De Morgan. Her father was William Frend (1757-1841), the reformer and a friend of Crabb Robinson and George Dyer. The lines were printed in Mrs. De Morgan's _Three Score Years and Ten_, as are also those that follow--"To S.F."

Page 108. _To R Q._

From the Alb.u.m of Rotha Quillinan.

Page 109. _To S.L.... To M.L._

I have not been able to identify the Lockes. The J.F. of the last line might be Jane Field. Copies of these poems are preserved at South Kensington.

Page 109. _An Acrostic against Acrostics_.

Edward Hogg was a friend of Mr. Williams (see above). These verses were first printed in _The Lambs_ by Mr. W.C. Hazlitt.

Page 110. _On being Asked to Write in Miss Westwood's Alb.u.m._

Frances Westwood was the daughter of the Westwoods, with whom the Lambs were domiciled at Enfield Chase in 1829-1832. See letters to Gillman and Wordsworth (November 30, 1829, and January 22, 1830) for description of the Westwoods. The only son, Thomas Westwood, who died in 1888, and was an authority on the literature of angling, contributed to _Notes and Queries_ some very interesting reminiscences of the Lambs in those days.

This poem and that which follows it were sent to _Notes and Queries_ by Thomas Westwood (June 4, 1870).

It is concerning these lines that Lamb writes to Barton, in 1827:-- "Adieu to Alb.u.ms--for a great while--I said when I came here, and had not been fixed two days, but my Landlord's daughter (not at the Pot-house) requested me to write in her female friend's, and in her own.

If I go to ---- thou art there also, O all pervading Alb.u.m! All over the Leeward Islands, in Newfoundland, and the Back Settlements, I understand there is no other reading. They haunt me. I die of Albo-phobia!"

Page 111. _Un Solitaire._

E.I., who made the drawing in question, would be Emma Isola. The verses were copied by Lamb into his Alb.u.m, which is now in the possession of Mrs. Alfred Morrison.

Page 111. _To S[arah] T[homas]_.

From Lamb's Alb.u.m. I have not been able to trace this lady.

Page 111. _To Mrs. Sarah Robinson._