friend's publication. Here were most Elia-like precursors of the
famous "Essays."

In the autumn of 1817 the Lambs removed from the Temple in which they
had passed the greater part of their lives, taking rooms over a
brazier's shop at 20, Russell Street, Covent Garden, at the corner of
Bow Street, where, as Mary Lamb put it, they had "Drury Lane Theatre
in sight of our front, and Covent Garden from our back windows."
Covent Garden, as Charles said, "dearer to me than any garden of
Alcinous, where we are morally sure of the earliest peas and
'sparagus." One of the first letters from the new lodgings Lamb
whimsically addressed as from "The Garden of England." The half dozen
years during which he lived here forms from a literary point of view
the most memorable period of Lamb's life. Here he arranged for the
publication of the two precious little volumes of his "Works" which
were issued in the summer of 1818--volumes which he found "admirably
adapted for giving away," having no exaggerated idea of the sensation
which the publication was likely to make. That publication was
arranged, apparently, at the request of the publishers, the brothers
Ollier, whom he now numbered among his friends. Writing to Southey of
the venture he said: "I do not know whether I have done a silly thing
or a wise one, but it is of no great consequence. I run no risk and
care for no censure." Here in Russell Street Lamb continued his
sociable weekly evenings--changed from Wednesdays to Thursdays--here,
indeed, he had to chafe anew at the difficulty of having himself to
himself; he was never C. L., he declared, but always C. L. and Co. He
had, indeed, something of a genius for friendship; however much he
might wish to be alone, he was, there can be little doubt, ever
genial, ever his wise and whimsical self, even when suffering under
the untimely advent of "Mr. Hazlitt, Mr. Martin Burney, or Morgan