advertise it in full, as it now stands, the title page might have
simply the Last Essays of Elia, to keep out any notion of its being a
second vol.--

Well, I wish us luck heartily for your sake who have smarted by me.--

LETTER 562

CHARLES LAMB TO T.N. TALFOURD

February, 1833.

My dear T.,--Now cannot I call him _Serjeant_; what is there in a coif?
Those canvas-sleeves protective from ink, when he was a law-chit--a
_Chitty_ling, (let the leathern apron be apocryphal) do more 'specially
plead to the Jury Court of old memory. The costume (will he agnize it?)
was as of a desk-fellow or Socius Plutei. Methought I spied a brother!

That familiarity is extinct for ever. Curse me if I can call him Mr.
Serjeant--except, mark me, in _company_. Honour where honour is due; but
should he ever visit us, (do you think he ever will, Mary?) what a
distinction should I keep up between him and our less fortunate friend,
H.C.R.! Decent respect shall always be the Crabb's--but, somehow, short
of reverence.

Well, of my old friends, I have lived to see two knighted: one made a
judge, another in a fair way to it. Why am I restive? why stands my sun
upon Gibeah?

Variously, my dear Mrs. Talfourd, (I can be more familiar with her!)
_Mrs. Serjeant Talfourd_,--my sister prompts me--(these ladies stand
upon ceremonies)--has the congratulable news affected the members of our
small community. Mary comprehended it at once, and entered into it
heartily. Mrs. W---- was, as usual, perverse--wouldn't, or couldn't,
understand it. A Serjeant? She thought Mr. T. was in the law. Didn't
know that he ever 'listed.

Emma alone truly sympathised. _She_ had a silk gown come home that very
day, and has precedence before her learned sisters accordingly.

We are going to drink the health of Mr. and Mrs. Serjeant, with all the
young serjeantry--and that is all that I can see that I shall get by the
promotion.

Valete, et mementote amici quondam vestri humillimi.

C.L.

[Talfourd, who had been pupil of Joseph Chitty, had just become a
serjeant.

"H.C.R."--Crabb Robinson.

"My old friends." Stoddart and Tuthill were knighted; Barron Field was a
judge; Talfourd was to become both a knight and a judge.

"Mrs. W----." Mrs. Westwood, I suppose.]

LETTER 563

CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON

[No date. 1833.]

D'r M. let us see you & your Brother on Sunday--The Elias are
beautifully got up. Be cautious how you name the _probability_ of