as well as any one.  But these pompous masquerades without masks (naked names or faces) I hate.  So there’s a bit of my mind.  Besides they infallibly cheat you, I mean the booksellers.  If I get but a copy, I only expect it from Hood’s being my friend.  Coleridge has lately been here.  He too is deep among the Prophets—­the Yearservers—­the mob of Gentlemen Annuals.  But they’ll cheat him, I know.

And now, dear B.B., the Sun shining out merrily, and the dirty clouds we had yesterday having washd their own faces clean with their own rain, tempts me to wander up Winchmore Hill, or into some of the delightful vicinages of Enfield, which I hope to show you at some time when you can get a few days up to the great Town.  Believe me it would give both of us great pleasure to show you all three (we can lodge you) our pleasant farms and villages.—­

We both join in kindest loves to you and yours.—­

CH.  LAMB REDIVIVUS.

Saturday.

[The edition of Bunyan was that published for Barton’s friend, John Major, and John Murray in 1830, with a life of Bunyan by Southey, and illustrations by John Martin and W. Harvey, and a prefatory poem not by Mrs. Hemans but by Bernard Barton immediately before Bunyan’s “Author’s Apology for his Book,” from which Lamb quotes.

“Pidcock’s.”  Pidcock showed his lions at Bartholomew Fair; he was succeeded by Polito of Exeter Change.

“Heath.”  This was Charles Heath (1785-1848), son of James Heath, a great engraver of steel plates for the Annuals.

“Mitford’s Salamander God.”  I cannot explain this, except by Mr. Macdonald’s supposition that Lamb meant to write “Martin’s.”

“The Gem.”  See note below, p. 839.

Hood’s entertainment for Mathews and Frederick Yates, then joint-managers of the Adelphi, I have not identified.  Authors’ names on play-bills were, in those days, unimportant.  The play was the thing.

Cary.  The Rev. H.F.  Cary, translator of Dante.

Coleridge and the Annuals.  For example, Coleridge’s “Names” was in the Keepsake for 1829; his “Lines written in the Album at Elbingerode” in part in the Amulet for 1829.  He had also contributed previously to the Literary Souvenir, the Amulet and the Bijou.

Here should come an unprinted note from Lamb to Charles Mathews, dated October 27, 1828, referring to the farce “The Pawnbroker’s Daughter,” which Lamb offered to Mathews for the Adelphi.  As I have said, this farce was never acted.]

LETTER 463

CHARLES LAMB TO CHARLES COWDEN CLARKE

[Enfield, October, 1828.]