body of this death?

It is just 15 minutes after 12. Thurtell is by this time a good way on
his journey, baiting at Scorpion perhaps, Ketch is bargaining for his
cast coat and waistcoat, the Jew demurs at first at three half crowns,
but on consideration that he, may get somewhat by showing 'em in the
Town, finally closes.--

C.L.

["Judge Park's wig." Sir James Alan Park, of the Bench of Common Pleas,
who tried Thurtell, the murderer of Mr. William Weare of Lyon's Inn, in
Gill's Hill Lane, Radlett, on October 24, 1823.]

LETTER 340

CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON

[P.M. January 23, 1824.]

My dear Sir--That peevish letter of mine, which was meant to convey an
apology for my incapacity to write, seems to have been taken by you in
too serious a light. It was only my way of telling you I had a severe
cold. The fact is I have been insuperably dull and lethargic for many
weeks, and cannot rise to the vigour of a Letter, much less an Essay.
The London must do without me for a time, a time, and half a time, for I
have lost all interest about it, and whether I shall recover it again I
know not. I will bridle my pen another time, & not teaze and puzzle you
with my aridities. I shall begin to feel a little more alive with the
spring. Winter is to me (mild or harsh) always a great trial of the
spirits. I am ashamed not to have noticed your tribute to Woolman, whom
we love so much. It is done in your good manner. Your friend Taylor
called upon me some time since, and seems a very amiable man. His last
story is painfully fine. His Book I "like." It is only too stuft with
scripture, too Parsonish. The best thing in it is the Boy's own story.
When I say it is too full of Scripture, I mean it is too full of direct
quotations; no book can have too much of SILENT SCRIPTURE in it. But the
natural power of a story is diminished when the uppermost purpose in the
writer seems to be to recommend something else, viz Religion. You know
what Horace says of the DEUS INTERSIT. I am not able to explain myself,
you must do it for me.--

My Sister's part in the Leicester School (about two thirds) was purely
her own; as it was (to the same quantity) in the Shakspeare Tales which
bear my name. I wrote only the Witch Aunt, the first going to Church,
and the final Story about a little Indian girl in a Ship.

Your account of my Black Balling amused me. _I think, as Quakers, they
did right_. There are some things hard to be understood.