He was really rather naughty with the children.  One of his tricks was to teach them a new kind of catechism (Mrs. Coe does not remember it, but we may rest assured, I fear, that it was secular), and he made a great fuss with Lizzie Hunt for her skill in saying the Lord’s Prayer backwards, which he had taught her.

“We’ll still make ’em run...”  Garrick’s “Hearts of Oak,” sung in “Harlequin’s Invasion.”

“How shall we tell them in a stranger’s ear?” A quotation from Lamb himself, in the lines “Written soon after the Preceding Poem,” in 1798 (see Vol.  IV.).]

LETTER 406

CHARLES LAMB TO HENRY CRABB ROBINSON

[No date.  Jan. 20, 1827.]

Dear R.N. is dead.  I have writ as nearly as I could to look like a letter meant for your eye only.  Will it do?

Could you distantly hint (do as your own judgment suggests) that if his son could be got in as Clerk to the new Subtreasurer, it would be all his father wish’d?  But I leave that to you.  I don’t want to put you upon anything disagreeable.

Yours thankfully

C.L.

[The reference at the beginning is to the preceding letter, which was probably enclosed with this note.

Here should come a note to Allsop dated Jan. 25, 1827, complaining of the cold.]

LETTER 407

CHARLES LAMB TO HENRY CRABB ROBINSON

[Dated by H.C.R.  Jan. 29, 1827.]

Dear Robinson, If you have not seen Mr. Gurney, leave him quite alone for the present, I have seen Mr. Jekyll, who is as friendly as heart can desire, he entirely approves of my formula of petition, and gave your very reasons for the propriety of the “little village of Hertf’shire.”  Now, Mr. G. might not approve of it, and then we should clash.  Also, Mr. J. wishes it to be presented next week, and Mr. G. might fix earlier, which would be aukward.  Mr. J. was so civil to me, that I think it would be better NOT for you to show him that letter you intended.  Nothing can increase his zeal in the cause of poor Mr. Norris.  Mr. Gardiner will see you with this, and learn from you all about it, & consult, if you have seen Mr. G. & he has fixed a time, how to put it off.  Mr. J. is most friendly to the boy:  I think you had better not teaze the Treasurer any more about him, as it may make him less friendly to the Petition

Yours Ever

C.L.

[Writing to Dorothy Wordsworth on February 13, 1827, Robinson says:  “The Lambs are well.  I have been so busy that I have not lately seen them.  Charles has been occupied about the affair of the widow of his old friend Norris whose death he has felt.  But the health of both is good.”

Gurney would probably be John Gurney (afterwards Baron Gurney), the counsel and judge.  Jekyll was Joseph Jekyll, the wit, mentioned by Lamb in his essay on “The Old Benchers of the Inner Temple.”  He was a friend of George Dyer.]