[Lamb had probably been staying at Widford. Many years later he
described his Hertfordshire days in more than one essay (see the _Elia_
essays "Mackery End" and "Blakesmoor in H-----shire" and
"Dream-Children"). The old house was, of course, Blakesware. The
wilderness, which lay at the back of the house, is, with Widford,
mentioned in _Rosamund Gray_.

The Arches were the brothers Arch, the booksellers of Ludgate Hill.

Gebor stands for _Gebir_, Landor's poem, published in 1798. The simile
in question would be this: from Book VII., lines 248-251:--

Never so eager, when the world was waves,
Stood the less daughter of the ark, and tried
(Innocent this temptation) to recall
With folded vest and casting arm the dove.

The reference to Southey's Anthology is to Vol. II., then in
preparation. The play was now finished: it circulated in manuscript
before being published in 1802.

In a letter to Robert Lloyd, dated December 17, 1799, Lamb thanks him
for a present of porter, adding that wine makes him hot, and brandy
drunk, but porter warms without intoxication.

Here should come an unpublished letter from Lamb to Charles Lloyd at
Cambridge, asking for the return of his play. Kemble, he says, had
offered to put it in the hands of the proprietor of Drury Lane, and
therefore Lamb wishes to have a second copy in the house. Kemble, as it