C. L.
To Mr. Coleridge,
Mr. Tobin's,
Barnards Inn, Holborn.
[This is written on the back of a paper addressed (to save postage) to
Mr. Lamb, India House, containing a long extract from "Madoc" in
Southey's hand.
Coleridge, having been invited by Stoddart to Malta, was now in London on his way thither. Tobin was probably James Webbe Tobin, brother of John Tobin, the solicitor and dramatist.
Between this letter and the next comes a letter from Lamb to Robert
Lloyd, dated at the end March 13, 1804, in which Lamb congratulates
Robert Lloyd on his approaching marriage to Hannah Hart. The wedding was
celebrated on August 2, 1804.]
LETTER 117
MARY LAMB TO SARAH STODDART
[No date. ? March, 1804.]
My dearest Sarah,—I will just write a few hasty lines to say Coleridge is setting off sooner than we expected; and I every moment expect him to call in one of his great hurrys for this. Charles intended to write by him, but has not: most likely he will send a letter after him to Portsmouth: if he does, you will certainly hear from him soon. We rejoiced with exceeding joy to hear of your safe arrival: I hope your brother will return home in a few years a very rich man. Seventy pounds in one fortnight is a pretty beginning—
I envy your brother the pleasure of seeing Coleridge drop in unexpectedly upon him; we talk—but it is but wild and idle talk—of following him: he is to get my brother some little snug place of a thousand a year, and we are to leave all, and come and live among ye. What a pretty dream.