disentangled without injury.

I have said that the proprietorship of the "London Magazine," in the year
1821, became vested in Messrs. Taylor and Hessey, under whom it became a
social centre for the meeting of many literary men. The publication,
however, seems to have interfered with the ordinary calling of the
booksellers; and the sale was not therefore (I suppose) sufficiently
important to remunerate them for the disturbance of their general trade.
At all events, it was sold to Mr. Henry Southern, the editor of "The
Retrospective Review," at the expiration of 1825, after having been in
existence during five entire years. In Mr. Southern's hands, under a
different system of management, it speedily ceased.

In 1826 (January) Charles Lamb suffered great grief from the loss of a
very old friend, Mr. Norris. It may be remembered that he was one of the
two persons who went to comfort Lamb when his mother so suddenly died. Mr.
Norris had been one of the officers of the Inner Temple or Christ's
Hospital, and had been intimate with the Lambs for many years; and
Charles, when young, used always to spend his Christmases with him. "He
was my friend and my father's friend," Lamb writes, "all the life I can
remember. I seem to have made foolish friendships ever since. Old as I am,
in his eyes I was still the child he first knew me. To the last he called
me 'Charley.' I have none to call me Charley now. He was the last link
that bound me to the Temple."

It was after his death that Lamb once more resorted to the British Museum,
which he had been in the habit of frequenting formerly, when his first
"Dramatic Specimens" were published. Now he went there to make other
extracts from the old plays. These were entitled "The Garrick Plays," and
were bestowed upon Mr. Hone, who was poor, and were by him published in