LETTER 265
CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ALLSOP
[No date. 1821.]
Dear Sir—The hairs of our head are numbered, but those which emanate from your heart defy arithmetic. I would send longer thanks but your young man is blowing his fingers in the Passage.
Yours gratefully C.L.
[The date of this scrap is unimportant; but it comes well here in connection with the reference in the preceding letter.
In Harper's Magazine for December, 1859, were printed fifty of Lamb's notes to Allsop, all of which are reproduced in at least two editions of Lamb's letters. I have selected only those which say anything, as for the most part Lamb was content with the merest message; moreover, the date is often so uncertain as to be only misleading.
Crabb Robinson says of Allsop, "I believe his acquaintance with Lamb originated in his sending Coleridge a present of £100 in admiration of his genius.">[