Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to Thomas Allsop, 6 September 1823
[Dated at end: Sept. 6 [1823].]
DEAR Alsop—I
am snugly seated at the cottage; Mary is
well but weak, and comes home on Monday; she will soon
be strong enough to see her friends here. In the mean time will you dine with
me at ½ past four to-morrow? Ayrton and
Mr. Burney are coming.
Colebrook Cottage, left hand side, end of Colebrook Row on
the western brink of the New River, a detach’d whitish house.
No answer is required but come if you can.
C. Lamb.
Saturday 6th Sep.
I call’d on you on Sunday. Respcts to Mrs. A. & boy.
Ann Allsop [née Dean] (d. 1877 c.)
The wife of Thomas Allsop, biographer of Coleridge, whom she married in 1824; she was a
society hostess, not the actress Fanny Alsop, daughter of Dorothy Jordan.
Thomas Allsop (1795-1880)
English silk merchant and stockbroker who was the friend and biographer of Coleridge
(1836) and a member of Charles Lamb's circle.
William Ayrton (1777-1858)
A founding member of the Philharmonic Society and manager of the Italian opera at the
King's Theatre; he wrote for the
Morning Chronicle and the
Examiner.
Martin Charles Burney (1788-1852)
The son of Admiral James Burney and nephew of Fanny Burney; he was a lawyer on the
western circuit, and a friend of Leigh Hunt, the Lambs, and Hazlitts.
Mary Anne Lamb (1764-1847)
Sister of Charles Lamb with whom she wrote Tales from Shakespeare (1807). She lived with
her brother, having killed their mother in a temporary fit of insanity.
