Chapter 232

CHARLES LAMB TO MATILDA BETHAM [Dated at end: June 1, 1816.]

Dear Miss Betham,--I have sent your _very pretty lines_ to Southey in a frank as you requested. Poor S. what a grievous loss he must have had! Mary and I rejoice in the prospect of seeing you soon in town. Let _us_ be among the very first persons you come to see. Believe me that you can have no friends who respect and love you more than ourselves. Pray present our kind remembrances to Barbara, and to all to whom you may think they will be acceptable.

Yours very sincerely, C. LAMB.

Have you seen _Christabel_ since its publication? E. I. H. June 1 1816.

[Southey's eldest son, Herbert, had died in April of this year. Here should come a letter from Lamb to H. Dodwell, of the India House, dated August, 1816, not available for this edition. Lamb writes from Calne, in Wiltshire, where he and his sister were making holiday, staying with the Morgans. He states that he has lost all sense of time, and recollected that he must return to work some day only through the accident of playing _Commerce_ instead of whist.]