Chapter 3

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS ALLSOP

[No date. 1821.]

Dear Sir--The _hairs_ of our head are numbered, but those which emanate from your heart defy arithmetic. I would send longer thanks but your young man is blowing his fingers in the Passage.

Yours gratefully C.L.

[The date of this scrap is unimportant; but it comes well here in connection with the reference in the preceding letter.

In _Harper's Magazine_ for December, 1859, were printed fifty of Lamb's notes to Allsop, all of which are reproduced in at least two editions of Lamb's letters. I have selected only those which say anything, as for the most part Lamb was content with the merest message; moreover, the date is often so uncertain as to be only misleading.

Crabb Robinson says of Allsop, "I believe his acquaintance with Lamb originated in his sending Coleridge a present of £100 in admiration of his genius."]