Page 201, beginning. I have said so before. See "Oxford in the
Vacation."
Page 201, line 5 of essay. My beloved Thames. Lamb describes a riparian holiday at and about Richmond in a letter to Robert Lloyd in 1804.
Page 201, line 8 of essay. Worthing… There is no record of the Lambs' sojourn at Worthing or Eastbourne. They were at Brighton in 1817, and Mary Lamb at any rate enjoyed walking on the Downs there; in a letter to Miss Wordsworth of November 21, 1817, she described them as little mountains, almost as good as Westmoreland scenery. They were at Hastings—at 13 Standgate Street—in 1823 (see Lamb's letters to Bernard Barton, July 10, 1823, to Hood, August 10, 1824, and to Dibdin, June, 1826). The only evidence that we have of Lamb knowing Worthing is his "Mr. H.". That play turns upon the name Hogsflesh, afterwards changed to Bacon. The two chief innkeepers at Worthing at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of its prosperity were named Hogsflesh and Bacon, and there was a rhyme concerning them which was well known (see notes to "Mr. H." in Vol. IV.).
Page 201, line 11 of essay. Many years ago. A little later Lamb says he was then fifteen. This would make the year 1790. It was probably on this visit to Margate that Lamb conceived the idea of his sonnet, "O, I could laugh," which Coleridge admired so much (see Vol. IV.).
Page 201, line 17 of essay. Thou old Margate Hoy. This old sailing-boat gave way to a steam-boat, the Thames, some time after 1815. The Thames, launched in 1815, was the first true steam-boat the river had seen. The old hoy, or lighter, was probably sloop rigged.
Page 202, foot. Our enemies. Lamb refers here to the attacks of Blackwood's Magazine on the Cockneys, among whom he himself had been included. In the London Magazine he had written "unfledged" for "unseasoned."
Page 206, line 14. Gebir. Gebir, by Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864), who was a fortnight older than Lamb, and who afterwards came to know him personally, was published in 1798.
Page 206, line 16. This detestable Cinque Port. A letter from Mary Lamb to Randal Norris, concerning this, or another, visit to Hastings, says: "We eat turbot, and we drink smuggled Hollands, and we walk up hill and down hill all day long." Lamb, in a letter to Barton, admitted a benefit: "I abused Hastings, but learned its value."
Page 208, line 5. Lothbury. Probably in recollection of Wordsworth's
"Reverie of Poor Susan," which Lamb greatly liked.
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