CHARLES LAMB

A Memoir

BY BARRY CORNWALL




PREFACE.



In my seventy-seventh year. I have been invited to place on record my
recollections of Charles Lamb.

I am, I believe, nearly the only man now surviving who knew much of the
excellent "Elia." Assuredly I knew him more intimately than any other
existing person, during the last seventeen or eighteen years of his life.

In this predicament, and because I am proud to associate my name with his,
I shall endeavor to recall former times, and to bring my old friend before
the eyes of a new generation.

I request the "courteous reader" to accept, for what they are worth, these
desultory labors of a lover of letters; and I hope that the advocate for
modern times will try to admit into the circle of his sympathy my
recollections of a fine Genius departed.

No harm--possibly some benefit--will accrue to any one who may consent to