I am called the Black Shepherd—you shall be Cowden with the Tuft.
Prosaically, we shall be glad to have you both,—or any two of you—drop in by surprise some Saturday night. This must go off.
Loves to Vittoria. C.L.
["Rank and Talent"-a novel by W.P. Scargill, 1829.
Mrs. Bedinfield wrote Longhollow: a Country Tale, 1829.
"Astrea." Probably the romance by Honoré D'Urfé.
"Cowden with the Tuft." So called from his hair, and from Riquet with the Tuft, the fairy tale. We read in the Cowden Clarkes' Recollections of Writers: "The latter name ('Cowden with the Tuft') slyly implies the smooth baldness with scant curly hair distinguishing the head of the friend addressed, and which seemed to strike Charles Lamb so forcibly, that one evening, after gazing at it for some time, he suddenly broke forth with the exclamation, ''Gad, Clarke! what whiskers you have behind your head!'">[
LETTER 478
CHARLES LAMB TO HENRY CRABB ROBINSON
[P.M. February 27, 1829.]