[Page 366,] line 5 of essay. About 1790 or 1791. Lamb was at the South-Sea House.
[Page 367,] line 27. Dr. Last. In Samuel Foote's play, "The Devil on Two Sticks," 1778.
[Page 367,] foot. My Lord Foppington. Lord Foppington in "The Relapse," by Congreve. Foppington remarks: "To mind the inside of a book is to entertain one's self with the forced product of another man's brain. Now I think a man of quality and breeding may be much amused with the natural sprouts of his own." Lamb uses the same speech for the motto of his "Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading."
[Page 368.] IX.—Mrs. Gilpin Riding To Edmonton.
Hone's Table Book, Vol. II., columns 79-81, 1827. Not reprinted by Lamb.
We know Lamb to have written this, from the evidence of an unpublished letter and the original "copy" and picture, once preserved at Rowfant. Lamb's letter to Hone, enclosing Hood's drawing, runs thus:—
[No date: early July, 1827.]
"Dear H.,
"This is Hood's, done from the life, of Mary getting over a style here. Mary, out of a pleasant revenge, wants you to get it engrav'd in Table Book to surprise H., who I know will be amus'd with you so doing.
"Append some observations about the awkwardness of country styles about Edmonton, and the difficulty of elderly Ladies getting over 'em.——