Chapter 71

CHARLES LAMB TO J.B. DIBDIN

[P.M. October 28, 1823.]

My dear Sir--Your Pig was a _picture_ of a pig, and your Picture a _pig_ of a picture. The former was delicious but evanescent, like a hearty fit of mirth, or the crackling of thorns under a pot; but the latter is an _idea_, and abideth. I never before saw swine upon sattin. And then that pretty strawy canopy about him! he seems to purr (rather than grunt) his satisfaction. Such a gentlemanlike porker too! Morland's are absolutely clowns to it. Who the deuce painted it?

I have ordered a little gilt shrine for it, and mean to wear it for a locket; a shirt-pig.

I admire the petty-toes shrouded in a veil of something, not _mud_, but that warm soft consistency with [? which] the dust takes in Elysium after a spring shower--it perfectly engloves them.

I cannot enough thank you and your country friend for the delicate double present--the Utile et Decorum--three times have I attempted to write this sentence and failed; which shows that I am not cut out for a pedant.

_Sir_

(as I say to Southey) will you come and see us at our poor cottage of Colebrook to tea tomorrow evening, as early as six? I have some friends coming at that hour--

The panoply which covered your material pig shall be forthcoming-- The pig pictorial, with its trappings, domesticate with me.

Your greatly obliged

ELIA.

Tuesday.

["_Sir_ (as I say to Southey)." Elia's Letter to Southey in the London Magazine began thus.]