(?) Mary Lamb. This poem was the subject of the frontispiece to Vol. I. of the original edition. According to a letter from Jean D. Montgomery printed in The County Gentleman in August, 1907, there is extant in Kirkcudbrightshire a legend on which this poem is probably based. She writes thus:—
"At the farm of Newlaw, in the parish of Rerrick, in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, some people named Crosbie lived about the year 1782—at least, they had a son, Douglas, who was born there in that year. When the child grew old enough to trot about by himself his mother was in the habit of giving him his plate of porridge and milk to take outside the farm and eat every morning. He had probably done so for long enough, when one day, his mother, happening to go out, saw him seated on the ground eating his porridge in company with an adder, who, however, instead of hurting the child, merely supped up the milk. When the reptile edged a little nearer to the boy than was quite equal, Douglas slapped the adder on his head with his horn spoon, saying, "Keep yer ain side o' the plate, Grey Bairdie."
The mother was, of course, terrified, but waited until the boy had finished his meal, when she called in the neighbours and killed the adder.
Curiously enough a precisely similar story turned up in Hungary in 1907 and was telegraphed to the London press from Budapest.
Page 415. The First Tooth.
Mary Lamb. The last line was quoted by Lamb in his Popular Fallacy "That Home is Home": "It has been prettily said, that 'a babe is fed with milk and praise.'"
Page 416. To a River in which a Child was Drowned.
By Charles Lamb. It was reprinted by him in the Works, 1818, the text of which is here given. I imagine Lamb to have found the metre and manner of the poem in the ballad "Gentle River, Gentle River" (translated from the Spanish "Rio Verde, Rio Verde"), which is printed in the Percy Reliques. Reprinted by Mylius in The Junior Class-Book.
Page 416. The First of April.
(?) Mary Lamb.