Chapter 58

CHARLES LAMB TO JOHN BATES DIBDIN

[P.M. May 6, 1823.]

Dear Sir--Your verses were very pleasant, and I shall like to see more of them--I do not mean _addressed to me_.

I do not know whether you live in town or country, but if it suits your convenience I shall be glad to see you some evening-- say Thursday--at 20 Great Russell Street, Cov't Garden. If you can come, do not trouble yourself to write. We are old fashiond people who _drink tea_ at six, or not much later, and give cold mutton and pickle at nine, the good old hour. I assure you (if it suit you) we shall be glad to see you.--

Yours, etc. C. LAMB.

E.I.H., Tuesday, My love to Mr. Railton. Some day of May 1823. The same to Mr. Rankin, Not official. to the whole Firm indeed.

[The verses are not, I fear, now recoverable. Dibdin's firm was Railton, Rankin & Co., in Old Jury.

Here should come a letter from Lamb to Hone, dated May 19, 1823. William Hone (1780-1842), who then, his stormy political days over, was publishing antiquarian works on Ludgate Hill, had sent Lamb his _Ancient Mysteries Described_, 1823. Lamb thanks him for it, and invites him to 14 Kingsland Row, Dalston, the next Sunday: "We dine exactly at 4."]