Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Mary Lamb to Louisa Kenney, [December? 1822]
[No date. ? Early December, 1822.]
MY dear Friend,—How do you like Harwood? Is he not a noble boy? I congratulate
you most heartily on this happy meeting, and only wish I were present to
witness it. Come back with Harwood, I am dying to see
you—we will talk, that is, you shall talk and I will listen from ten in the
morning till twelve at night. My thoughts are often with you, and your
children’s dear faces are perpetually before me. Give them all one
additional kiss every morning for me. Remember there’s one for Louisa, one to Ellen, one
to Betsy, one to Sophia, one to James, one to
Teresa, one to Virginia, and one
to Charles. Bless them all! When shall I
ever see them again? Thank you a thousand times for all your kindness to me. I
know you will make light of the trouble my illness gave you; but the
recollection of it often sits heavy on my heart. If I could ensure my health,
how happy should I be to spend a month with you every summer!
When I met Mr.
Kenney there, I sadly repented that I had not dragged you on to
Dieppe with me. What a pleasant time we should have spent there!
You shall not be jealous of Mr.
Payne. Remember he did Charles and I good service without grudge or grumbling. Say ![]()
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to him how much I regret that we owe him
unreturnable obligations; for I still have my old fear that we shall never see
him again. I received great pleasure from seeing his two successful pieces. My
love to your boy Kenney, my boy
James, and all my dear girls, and also to
Rose; I hope she still drinks wine with you. Thank
Lou-Lou for her little bit of letter. I am in a
fearful hurry, or I would write to her. Tell my friend the Poetess that I
expect some French verses from her shortly. I have shewn
Betsy’s and Sophy’s
letters to all who came near me, and they have been very much admired. Dear
Fanny brought me the bag. Good soul
you are to think of me! Manning has
promised to make Fanny a visit this morning, happy girl!
Miss James I often see, I think
never without talking of you. Oh the dear long dreary Boulevards! how I do wish
to be just now stepping out of a Cuckoo into them!
Farewel, old tried friend, may we meet again! Would you
could bring your house with all its noisy inmates, and plant it, garden, gables
and all, in the midst of Covent Garden.
Yours ever most affectionately,
M. Lamb.
My best respects to your good neighbours.
Louisa Badams [née Holcroft] (1806-1855 fl.)
The daughter of Thomas Holcroft and his fourth wife, Louisa Mercier; in 1828 she married
John Badams (d. 1833) a Birmingham chemist, and afterwards a Baron de Merger. Her birth
date is also given as 24 June 1801.
Fanny Margaretta Holcroft (1785-1844)
The daughter of Thomas Holcroft and his third wife, Dinah Robinson; she was a translator
and novelist.
Harwood Holcroft (1804-1832 fl.)
The son of Thomas and Louisa Mercier Holcroft; he appears on a customs list for a
New-York-bound ship in 1832, giving his occupation as printer.
Sarah James (1843 fl.)
The daughter of a clergyman of Beguildy in Shropshire, she was a nurse at Mr. Warburton's
mental institution at Hoxton who attended Mary Lamb.
Sophie Jeaffreson [née Kenney] (1857 fl)
The daughter of the playwright James Kenney and his wife Louisa, formerly Holcroft; she
married the physician Samuel John Jeaffreson (d. 1870) and was the mother of the music
critic Rosa Newmarch.
Charles Lamb Kenney (1821-1881)
The son of the playwright James Kenney and his wife, Louisa, née Mercier; educated at
Merchant Taylors' School, he worked as a journalist for the
Times, a
translator, and adapter of plays.
James Kenney (1780-1849)
Irish playwright, author of
The World (1808); he was a friend of
Lamb, Hunt, Moore, and Rogers.
Charles Lamb [Elia] (1775-1834)
English essayist and boyhood friend of Coleridge at Christ's Hospital; author of
Essays of Elia published in the
London
Magazine (collected 1823, 1833) and other works.
Thomas Manning (1772-1840)
Educated at Caius College, Cambridge, he traveled in China and Tibet, and was a life-long
friend of Charles Lamb.
John Howard Payne (1791-1852)
American dramatist and friend of Washington Irving who worked in England and France from
1813 to 1832; he was author of
Brutus, or, the Fall of Tarquin: an
Historical Tragedy, in Five Acts (1818).
