Alpha Road, Regent's Park]

Christmas Day [1841].

My dear Jane,--Many thanks for your kind presents--your Michalmas goose.
I thought Mr. Moxon had written to thank you--the turkeys and nice
apples came yesterday.

Give my love to your dear Mother. I was unhappy to find your note in the
basket, for I am always thinking of you all, and wondering when I shall
ever see any of you again. I long to shew you what a nice snug place I
have got into--in the midst of a pleasant little garden. I have a room
for myself and my old books on the ground floor, and a little bedroom up
two pairs of stairs. When you come to town, if you have not time to go
[to] the Moxons, an Omnibus from the Bell and Crown in Holborn would
[bring] you to our door in [a] quarter of an hour. If your dear Mother
does not venture so far, I will contrive to pop down to see [her]. Love
and all seasonable wishes to your sister and Mary, &c. I am in the midst
of many friends--Mr. & Mrs. Kenney, Mr. & Mrs. Hood, Bar[r]on Field &
his brother Frank, & their wives &c., all within a short walk.

If the lodger is gone, I shall have a bedroom will hold two! Heaven
bless & preserve you all in health and happiness many a long year.

Yours affectionately,

M.A. LAMB.

LETTER 616

MARY LAMB TO JANE NORRIS

Oct. 3, 1842.

My dear Jane Norris,--Thanks, many thanks, my dear friend, for your kind
remembrances. What a nice Goose! That, and all its accompaniments in the
basket, we all devoured; the two legs fell to my share!!!

Your chearful [letter,] my Jane, made me feel "almost as good as new."

Your Mother and I _must meet again_. Do not be surprized if I pop in
again for a half-hour's call some fine frosty morning.

Thank you, dear Jane, for the happy tidings that my _old_ friend Miss
Bangham is alive, an[d] that Mary is still with you, unmarried. Heaven
bless you all.

Love to Mother, _Betsey_, Mary, &c. How I do long to see you.

I am always your affecately grateful friend,

MARY ANN LAMB.

LAST LETTER

Miss JAMES TO JANE NORRIS

41 Alpha Road, Regent's Park,

London, July 25, 1843.

Madam,--Miss Lamb, having seen the Death of your dear Mother in the
Times News Paper, is most anxious to hear from or to see one of you, as
she wishes to know how you intend settling yourselves, and to have a
full account of your dear Mother's last illness. She was much shocked on
reading of her death, and appeared very vexed that she had not been to
see h