"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.]