1840.

JAMES HOGG. "I'm a' gaen wrang," a song by the Ettrick Shepherd,
_circa_ 1830.

JOANNA BAILLIE. "Up! quit thy bower," a song, undated, _circa_
1830.

ROBERT SOUTHEY. Epitaph on himself, in verse, Feb. 18, 1837.

THOMAS CAMPBELL. "Victoria's sceptre o'er the waves," _circa_
1837.

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. "The Pirate's Song," _circa_ 1838.

CHARLES DIBDIN. "An Album's like the Dream of Hope," _circa_
1827.

BERNARD BARTON. "To Emma," with a note by Charles Lamb
at foot, 1827.

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. "To Emma Isola," _circa_ 1827.

BARRY CORNWALL. "To the Spirit of Italy," _circa_ 1827.

SAMUEL ROGERS. Two letters, and a poem, "My Last," 1829-36.

FREDERICK LOCKER (afterwards Locker-Lampson). A quatrain,
dated July, 1873.

George Dyer, J.B. Dibdin, George Darley, Matilda Betham, H.F.
Cary, Mrs. Piozzi, Edward Moxon, T.N. Talfourd, are
the other writers.]

LETTER 472

CHARLES LAMB TO B.W. PROCTER

Jan. 22nd, 1829.

Don't trouble yourself about the verses. Take 'em coolly as they come.
Any day between this and Midsummer will do. Ten lines the extreme. There
is no mystery in my incognita. She has often seen you, though you may
not have observed a silent brown girl, who for the last twelve years has
run wild about our house in her Christmas holidays. She is Italian by
name and extraction. Ten lines about the blue sky of her country will
do, as it's her foible to be proud of it. But they must not be over
courtly or Lady-fied as she is with a Lady who says to her "go and she
goeth; come and she cometh." Item, I have made her a tolerable Latinist.
The verses should be moral too, as for a Clergyman's family. She is
called Emma Isola. I approve heartily of your turning your four vols.
into a lesser compass. 'Twill Sybillise the gold left. I shall, I think,
be in town in a few weeks, when I will assuredly see you. I will put in
here loves to Mrs. Procter and the Anti-Capulets, because Mary tells me
I omitted them in my last. I like to see my friends here. I have put my
lawsuit into the hands of an Enfield practitioner--a plain man, who
seems perfectly to understand it, and gives me hopes of a favourable
result.

Rumour tells us that Miss Holcroft is married; though the varlet has not
had the grace to make any communication to us on the subject. Who is
Badman, or Bed'em? Have I seen him at Montacute's? I hear he is a great
chymist. I am sometimes chymical myself. A