"Cromwell at Sidney." See Mary Lamb's letter to Miss Hutchinson, August 20, 1815.
"Harvey … at Dr. Davy's"—Dr. Martin Davy, Master of Caius.
"Alsop." This is the first mention of Thomas Allsop (1795-1880), Coleridge's friend and disciple, who, meeting Coleridge in 1818, had just come into Lamb's circle. We shall meet him frequently. Allsop's Letters, Conversations and Recollections of Samuel Taylor Coleridge contain much matter concerning Lamb.
"Winter bleak had charms for me." I could not find this for the large edition. It is from Burns' "Epistle to William Simpson," stanza 13.
Mrs. Paris was a sister of William Ayrton and the mother of John Ayrton Paris, the physician. It was at her house at Cambridge that the Lambs met Emma Isola, whom we are soon to meet.
"Mrs. Smith." Lamb worked up this portion of his letter into the little humorous sketch "The Gentle Giantess," printed in the London Magazine for December, 1822 (see Vol. I. of the present edition), wherein Mrs. Smith of Cambridge becomes the Widow Blacket of Oxford.
"Dr. W."—Dr. Christopher Wordsworth.]
LETTER 265
CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ALLSOP
[No date. 1821.]