to the subject of poverty:--"You dropt a word whether in jest or
earnest, as if you would join me in some work, such as a review or
series of papers, essays, or anything.--Were you serious? I want home
occupation, & I more want money. Had you any scheme, or was it, as G.
Dyer says, en passant? If I don't have a Legacy left me shortly I must
get into pay with some newspaper for small gains. Mutton is twelvepence
a pound."

Here should come a letter from Lamb to Robert Lloyd, in which he
describes a visit to Gutch's family at Oxford, and mentions his
admiration for a fine head of Bishop Taylor in All Souls' Library, which
was an inducement to the Oxford visit. He refers to Charles Lloyd's
settlement in the Lakes, and suggests that it may be the means of again
uniting him and Coleridge; adding that such men as Coleridge and
Wordsworth would exclude solitude in the Hebrides or Thule.

The following undated letter, which may be placed a little too soon in
its present position, comes with a certain fitness here:--]




LETTER 59


CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN MATHEW GUTCH

[No date. 1800.]

Dear Gutch, Anderson is not come home, and I am almost afraid to tell