From this mere memento of brick-and-mortar—all my original intent—I have been led on to a study of the man himself, from our more modern and more humane point of view. The time has long gone by for that kindly compact of reticence which may have been becoming in the years directly after his death. Nothing need be hidden now about the madness of Mary, about the terrible taking-off of her mother, about the early insanity of Charles himself, or his later weaknesses. And, in telling the entire truth, I have found comfort and cheer in the belief that neither apology nor homily can ever again be deemed needful to a decorous demeanour beside these dead.

So that I have sketched him just as he lives for me—the lines and the wrinkles of his aspect, the shine and the shadow of his soul: just as he moved in the crowd, among his friends, by his sister’s side, and alone. To show exactly what he was, rather than what he did, I have used his own words wherever this was possible; altering them as to their letter alone, where it has seemed essential. In this spirit of affectionate allegiance I have followed him faithfully in all his wanderings, from his cradle close by the Thames to his grave not far from the Lea.

B. E. M.

New York, October, 1890.

List of Illustrations.

[Charles Lamb,][Frontispiece]
PAGE
[The Temple Gardens, from Crown Office Row,][14]
By John Fulleylove.
[A Corner in the Blue-Coat School,][18]
By Herbert Railton.
[The East India House,][26]
By Herbert Railton.
[No. 7 Little Queen Street,][32]
[The House in Pentonville,][39]
[The Feathers Tavern,][48]
By Herbert Railton.
[No. 20 Russell Street, Covent Garden,][78]
By Herbert Railton.
[The Cottage in Colebrook Row,][96]
By Herbert Railton.
[Lamb’s two Houses at Enfield,][102]
By John Fulleylove.
[No. 34 Southampton Buildings,][122]
By Herbert Railton.
[Charles Lamb—the Maclise Portrait,][126]
[Fac-simile of a Receipt for a Legacy,][128]
Signed by Charles Lamb as Guardian for his Sister Mary.
[The Walden House at Edmonton,][130]
By John Fulleylove.
[Edmonton Church, from Lamb’s Grave,][136]
By John Fulleylove.
[The Grave of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb at Edmonton,][140]
By John Fulleylove.

“The sun set; but set not his hope:
Stars rose; his faith was earlier up:
Fixed on the enormous galaxy,
Deeper and older seemed his eye;
And matched his sufferance sublime
The taciturnity of time.
He spoke, and words more soft than rain
Brought the Age of Gold again:
His action won such reverence sweet,
As hid all measure of the feat.”
—Emerson.