with his sister through some churchyard, he inquired anxiously, "Where do
the naughty people lie?" the unqualified panegyrics which he encountered
on the tombstones doubtless suggesting the inquiry. Mr. Samuel Le Grice
(his schoolfellow) states that he was an amiable, gentle youth, very
sensible, and keenly observing; that "his complexion was clear brown, his
countenance mild, his eyes differing in color, and that he had a slow and
peculiar walk." He adds that he was never mentioned without the addition
of his Christian name, Charles, implying a general feeling of kindness
towards him. His delicate frame and difficulty of utterance, it is said,
unfitted him for joining in any boisterous sports.

After he left Christ's Hospital, he returned home, where he had access to
the large miscellaneous library of Mr. Salt. He and his sister were (to
use his own words) "tumbled into a spacious closet of good old English
reading, and browsed at will on that fair and wholesome pasturage." This,
however, could not have lasted long, for it was the destiny of Charles
Lamb to be compelled to labor almost from, his boyhood. He was able to
read Greek, and had acquired great facility in Latin composition, when he
left the Hospital; but an unconquerable impediment in his speech deprived
him of an "exhibition" in the school, and, as a consequence, of the
benefit of a college education.

The state of Christ's Hospital, at the time when Lamb was a scholar there,
may be ascertained with tolerable correctness from his two essays,
entitled "Recollections of Christ's Hospital" and "Christ's Hospital five
and thirty years ago." These papers when read together show the different
(favorable and unfavorable) points of this great establishment. They leave
no doubt as to its extensive utility. Although, strictly speaking, it was
a charitable home for the sustenance and education of boys, slenderly
provided, or unprovided, with the means of learning, they were neither