C.L.
Friday.
[Le Grice we have met. "Johnny Gilpin's" was The Bell at Edmonton.
Here should come another note from Lamb to Mrs. Randal Norris, in which
Lamb says that he reached home safely and thanks her for three agreeable
days. Also he sends some little books, which were, I take it, copies of
Moxon's private reissue of Poetry for Children.
Mr. W.C. Hazlitt records that a letter from Lamb to Miss Norris was in existence in which the writer gave "minute and humorous instructions for his own funeral, even specifying the number of nails which he desired to be inserted in his coffin.">[
LETTER 586
CHARLES LAMB TO EDWARD MOXON
[P.M. July 24, 1833.]
For god's sake, give Emma no more watches. One has turn'd her head. She is arrogant, and insulting. She said something very unpleasant to our old Clock in the passage, as if he did not keep time, and yet he had made her no appointment. She takes it out every instant to look at the moment-hand. She lugs us out into the fields, because there the bird-boys ask you "Pray, Sir, can you tell us what's a Clock," and she answers them punctually. She loses all her time looking "what the time is." I overheard her whispering, "Just so many hours, minutes &c. to Tuesday—I think St. George's goes too slow"—This little present of Time, why, 'tis Eternity to her—
What can make her so fond of a gingerbread watch?