ain.

Yours (both yours) truly and affectionately, M. LAMB.

Becky is going by the Post office, so I will send it away. I mean to
commence letter-writer to the family.

[Mr. Hazlitt dates this letter April, 1828. The reference to the Widow,
towards the end, shows that Hood was preparing _The Gem_, and, what is
not generally known, that Lamb had been asked to write on that subject.
As it happened, Hood wrote the essay for him and signed it Elia (see
note below). Mrs. Paris we have met. Harriet, Emma Isola's sister, we do
not hear of again. I was recently shown a copy of Lamb's _Works_, 1818,
inscribed in his hand to Miss Isola: this would be Harriet Isola. Emma
had just begun her duties at Fornham, in Suffolk, where she taught the
children of a Mr. Williams, a clergyman. I cannot say what the Picture
was. The sonnet was probably that printed in the note to the letter to
Mrs. Shelley of July 26, 1827. Charles Lamb's and Emma's joint letter has
not been preserved.]

LETTER 460

CHARLES LAMB TO B.R. HAYDON

August, 1828.

Dear Haydon,--I have been tardy in telling you that your Chairing the
Member gave me great pleasure;--'tis true broad Hogarthian fun, the High
Sheriff capital. Considering, too, that you had the materials imposed
upon you, and that you did not select them from the rude world as H.
did, I hope to see many more such from your hand. If the former picture
went beyond this I have had a loss, and the King a bargain. I longed to
rub the back of my hand across the hearty canvas that two senses might
be gratified. Perhaps the subject is a little discordantly placed
opposite to another act of Chairing, where the huzzas were
Hosannahs,--but I was pleased to see so many of my old acquaintances
brought together notwithstanding.

Believe me, yours truly,

C. LAMB.

[Haydon's "Chairing the Member" was exhibited in Bond Street this year,
together with "Christ's Entry into Jerusalem," and other of his works.
"The former picture" was his "Mock Election," which the King had bought
for 500 guineas. For "Chairing the Member" Haydon received only half
that price.

Here should come a letter to Rickman, dated September 11, 1828, in which
Lamb thanks him for a present of nuts and apples, but is surprised that
apples should be offered to the owner of a "whole tree, almost an
orchard," and "an apple chamber redolent" to boot.

Here should come a letter from Lamb to Louisa Holcroft, dated October 2,
1828, in