Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to Anne Allsop, [13 April 1824]
[p.m. April 13, 1824.]
DEAR Mrs.
A.—Mary begs me to say how
much she regrets we can not join you to Reigate. Our reasons are—1st I have but one holyday namely Good Friday, and it is
not pleasant to solicit for another, but that might have been got over. 2dly
Manning is with us, soon to go away and
we should not be easy in leaving him, 3dly Our school
girl Emma comes to us for a few days on
Thursday. 4thly and lastly, Wordsworth is returning home in about a week, and out of
respect to them we should not like to absent ourselves just now. In summer I
shall have a month, and if it shall suit, should like to go for a few days of
it out with you both any where. In the mean time, with
many acknowledgments etc. etc., I remain yours (both) truly,
C. Lamb.
India Ho. 13 Apr.
Remember Sundays.
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.
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.
Thomas Manning (1772-1840)
Educated at Caius College, Cambridge, he traveled in China and Tibet, and was a life-long
friend of Charles Lamb.
Emma Lamb Moxon [née Isola] (1809-1891)
The orphaned daughter of Charles Isola adopted by Charles and Mary Lamb; after working as
a governess she married Edward Moxon in 1833.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
With Coleridge, author of
Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth
survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.
