Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to Edward Moxon, [25 December? 1830]
[No date. ? Christmas, 1830.]
DEAR M. A
thousand thanks for your punctualities. What a cheap Book is the last Hogarth you sent me! I am pleased now that
Hunt diddled me out of the old one. Speaking of this, only think of the
new farmer with his 30 acres. There is a portion of land in Lambeth parish
called Knaves Acre. I wonder he overlook’d it. Don’t show this to
the firm of Dilk & Co. I ![]()
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want one copy of Leicester School, and wish you to pay
Leishman, Taylor, 2 Blandford Place, Pall Mall,
opposite the British Institution, £6. 10. for coat waistcoat &c. And I
vehemently thirst for the 4th No. of Nichols’s Hogarth, to bind ’em up (the 2
books) as “Hogarth, and Supplement.” But as
you know the price, dont stay for its appearance; but come as soon as ever you
can with your bill of all demands in full, and, as I have none but £5 notes,
bring with you sufficient change. Weather is beautiful. I grieve sadly for
Miss Wordsworth. We are all well
again. Emma is with us, and we all shall
be glad of a sight of you. Come On Sunday, if you can; better, if you come
before. Perhaps Rogers would smile at
this.—A pert half chemist half apothecary, in our town, who smatters of
literature and is immeasurable unletterd, said to me “Pray, Sir, may
not Hood (he of the acres) be
reckon’d the Prince of wits in the present day?” to which I
assenting, he adds “I had always thought that Rogers had been
reckon’d the Prince of Wits, but I suppose that now Mr. Hood has the
better title to that appellation.” To which I replied that
Mr. R. had wit with much better qualities, but did not
aspire to the principality. He had taken all the puns manufactured in John Bull for our friend, in sad and
stupid earnest. One more Album
verses, please.
Charles Wentworth Dilke (1789-1864)
In 1816 he settled in Hampstead and befriended Leigh Hunt, John Hamilton Reynolds, and
John Keats; he contributed antiquarian material to periodicals and was editor of the
Athenaeum (1830-46).
William Hogarth (1697-1764)
English satirical painter whose works include
The Harlot's
Progress,
The Rake's Progress, and
Marriage à la Mode.
Thomas Hood (1799-1845)
English poet and humorist who wrote for the
London Magazine; he
published
Whims and Oddities (1826) and
Hood's
Magazine (1844-5).
Henry Leigh Hunt (1829 fl.)
The son of John Hunt and nephew of Leigh Hunt; after working at the
Examiner he was a London publisher in partnership with Charles Cowden Clarke from
1825 to 1829 when the firm went bankrupt.
Edward Moxon (1801-1858)
Poet and bookseller; after employment at Longman and Company he set up in 1830 with
financial assistance from Samuel Rogers and became the leading publisher of literary
poetry.
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.
John Nichols (1745-1826)
English printer, editor, biographer, bibliographer, and antiquary; he was the printer of
the
Gentleman's Magazine from 1780 and its sole editor from
1792.
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855)
English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular
Pleasures of Memory (1792),
Columbus (1810),
Jaqueline (1814), and
Italy (1822-28).
Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855)
The sister of William Wordsworth who transcribed his poems and kept his house; her
journals and letters were belatedly published after her death.
John Bull. (1820-1892). A scurrilous Tory weekly newspaper edited by Theodore Hook.
