Page 64, line 18. Twopenny postman. Hone computed, in his Every-Day Book, Vol. I., 1825, that "two hundred thousand letters beyond the usual daily average annually pass through the two-penny post-office in London on Valentine's Day." The Bishop's vogue is now (1911) almost over.
Page 65, line 15 from foot. E.B. Lamb's Key gives "Edward Burney, half brother of Miss Burney." This was Edward Francis Burney (1760-1848), who illustrated many old authors, among them Richardson.
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Page 66. IMPERFECT SYMPATHIES.
London Magazine, August, 1821, where the title ran: "Jews, Quakers, Scotchmen, and other Imperfect Sympathies."
Page 69, line 18 from foot. A print … after Leonardo. The Virgin of the Rocks. See Vol. IV. for Lamb's and his sister's verses on this picture. Crabb Robinson's MS. diary tells us that the Scotchman was one Smith, a friend of Godwin. His exact reply to Lamb's remark about "my beauty" was: "Why, sir, from all I have heard of you, as well as from what I have myself seen, I certainly entertain a very high opinion of your abilities, but I confess that I have not formed any opinion concerning your personal pretensions."
Page 70, line 10. The poetry of Burns. "Burns was the god of my idolatry," Lamb wrote to Coleridge in 1796. Coleridge's lines on Burns, "To a Friend who had declared his intention of writing no more poetry," were addressed to Lamb. Barry Cornwall records seeing Lamb kiss his copy of the poet.
Page 70, line 17. You can admire him. In the London Magazine Lamb added:—
"I have a great mind to give up Burns. There is certainly a bragging spirit of generosity, a swaggering assertion of independence, and all that, in his writings."
Page 70, line 18. Smollett. Tobias George Smollett (1721-1771), the novelist, came of a Dumbartonshire family. Rory was Roderick Random's schoolboy name. His companion was Strap. See Roderick Random, Chapter XIII., for the passage in question. Smollett continued the History of England of David Hume (1711-1776), also a Scotchman, and one of the authors whom Lamb could not read (see "Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading," page 196).