mine shall shame thee, gentle name!'

509. *_Ibid._

Light will be thrown upon the tragic circumstance alluded to in this
Poem when, after the death of Charles Lamb's sister, his biographer, Mr.
Serjeant Talfourd, shall be at liberty to relate particulars which could
not, at the time when his Memoir was written, be given to the public.
Mary Lamb was ten years older than her brother, and has survived him as
long a time. Were I to give way to my own feelings, I should dwell not
only on her genius and intellectual powers, but upon the delicacy and
refinement of manner which she maintained inviolable under most trying
circumstances. She was loved and honoured by all her brother's friends,
and others, some of them strange characters whom his philanthropic
peculiarities induced him to countenance. The death of C. Lamb himself
was doubtless hastened by his sorrow for that of Coleridge, to whom he
had been attached from the time of their being schoolfellows at Christ's
Hospital. Lamb was a good Latin scholar, and probably would have gone to
college upon one of the School foundations but for the impediment in his
speech. Had such been his lot, he would have probably been preserved
from the indulgences of social humours and fancies which were often
injurious to himself and causes of severe regret to his friends, without
really benefiting the object of his misapplied kindness.

510. *_Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg_. [XV.]

These verses were written extempore immediately after reading a notice
of the Ettrick Shepherd's death in the Newcastle Paper, to the Editor of
which I sent a copy for publication. The persons lamented in these
Verses were all either of my friends or acquaintance. In Lockhart's Life
of Sir Walter Scott an account is given of my first meeting with him in
1803. How the Ettrick Shepherd and I became known to each other has
already been mentioned in these Notes. He was undoubtedly a man of
original genius, but of coarse manners and low and offensive opinions.
Of Coleridge and Lamb I need not speak here. Crabbe I have met in London
at Mr. Rogers', but more frequently and favourably at Mr. Hoare's upon
Hampstead Heath. Every Spring he used to pay that family a visit of some
length, and was upon terms of intimate friendship with Mrs. Hoare, and
still more with her daughter-in-law, who has a large collection of his
letters addressed to herself. After the Poet's decease application was
made to he