take this note from _A
House of Letters_.]

LETTER 584

CHARLES LAMB TO MATILDA BETHAM

[June 5, 1833.]

Dear Miss Betham,--I sit down, very poorly, to write to you, being come
to _Mr. Walden's, Church Street, Edmonton_, to be altogether with poor
Mary, who is very ill, as usual, only that her illnesses are now as many
months as they used to be weeks in duration--the reason your letter only
just found me. I am saddened with the havoc death has made in your
family. I do not know how to appreciate the kind regard of dear Anne;
Mary will understand it two months hence, I hope; but neither she nor I
would rob you, if the legacy will be of use to, or comfort to you. My
hand shakes so I can hardly write. On Saturday week I must come to town,
and will call on you in the morning before one o'clock. Till when I take
kindest leave.

Your old Friend,

C. LAMB.

[Here should come a note from Lamb to Mrs. Randal Norris, postmarked
July 10, 1833, which encloses a note from Joseph Jekyll, the Old
Bencher, thanking Lamb for a presentation copy of the _Last Essays of
Elia_ ("I hope not the last Essays of Elia") and asking him to accompany
Mrs. Norris and her daughters on a visit to him. Jekyll adds that "poor
George Dyer, blind, but as usual chearful and content, often gives ...
good accounts of you."

Here should come notes to Allsop, declining an invitation to Highgate,
and to a Mr. Tuff, warning him to be quick to use some theatre tickets
which Lamb had sent him.]

LETTER 585

CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON

[P.M. July 14, 1833.]

Dear M. the Hogarths are _delicate_. Perhaps it will amuse Emma to tell
her, that, a day or two since, Miss Norris (Betsy) call'd to me on the
road from London from a gig conveying her to Widford, and engaged me to
come down this afternoon. I think I shall stay only one night; she would
have been glad of E's accompaniment, but I would not disturb her, and
Mrs. N. is coming to town on Monday, so it would not have suited. Also,
C.V. Le Grice gave me a dinner at Johnny Gilpin's yesterday, where we
talk'd of what old friends were taken or left in the 30 years since we
had met.

I shall hope to see her on Tuesd'y.

To Bless you both

C.L.

Friday.

[Le Grice we have met. "Johnny Gilpin's" was The Bell at Edmonton.

Here should come another note from Lamb to Mrs. Randal Norris, in which
Lamb says that he reached home safely and thanks her for three agreeable
days. Also he sen