Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to James Gillman, 8 March 1830
MY dear G.,—Your friend Battin (for I knew him
immediately by the smooth satinity of his style) must excuse me for advocating
the cause of his friends in Spitalfields. The fact is, I am retained by the
Norwich people, and have already appeared in their paper under the signatures
of “Lucius Sergius,”
“Bluff,”
“Broad-Cloth,”
“No-Trade-to-the-Woollen-Trade,”
“Anti-plush,” &c., in defence of
druggets and long camblets. And without this pre-engagement, I feel I should
naturally have chosen a side opposite to ——, for in the silken seemingness of
his nature there is that which offends me. My flesh tingles at such
caterpillars. He shall not crawl me over. Let him and his workmen sing the old
burthen,
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for any aid I shall offer them in this emergency. I was over Saint
Luke’s the other day with my friend Tuthill, and mightily pleased with one of his contrivances for
the comfort and amelioration of the students. They have double cells, in which
a pair may lie feet to feet horizontally, and chat the time away as rationally
as they can. It must certainly be more sociable for them these warm raving
nights. The right-hand truckle in one of these friendly recesses, at present
vacant, was preparing, I understood, for Mr.
Irving. Poor fellow! it is time he removed from Pentonville. I
followed him as far as to Highbury the other day, with a mob at his heels,
calling out upon Ermigiddon, who I suppose is some Scotch moderator. He
squinted out his favourite eye last Friday, in the fury of possession, upon a
poor woman’s shoulders that was crying matches, and has not missed it.
The companion truck, as far as I could measure it with my eye, would
conveniently fit a person about the length of Coleridge, allowing for a reasonable drawing up of the feet,
not at all painful. Does he talk of moving this quarter? You and I have too
much sense to trouble ourselves with revelations; marry, to the same in Greek
you may have something professionally to say. Tell C. that
he was to come and see us some fine day. Let it be before he moves, for in his
new quarters he will necessarily be confined in his conversation to his brother
prophet. Conceive the two Rabbis foot to foot, for there are no
Gamaliels there to affect a humbler posture! All are
masters in that Patmos, where the law is perfect equality—Latmos, I should
rather say, for they will be ![]()
| 1830 | THE OLD WHIST NIGHTS | 837 |
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Luna’s twin darlings; her affection will be ever at the full. Well; keep
your brains moist with gooseberry this mad March, for the devil of exposition
seeketh dry places.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
English poet and philosopher who projected
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
with William Wordsworth; author of
Biographia Literaria (1817),
On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other
works.
James Gillman (1782-1839)
The Highgate surgeon with whom Coleridge lived from 1816 until his death in 1834; in 1838
he published an incomplete
Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Edward Irving (1792-1834)
Popular Presbyterian preacher in London; he was a friend of Coleridge and author of
The Oracles of God and the Judgement to Come (1823).
Sir George Leman Tuthill (1772-1835)
Educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, he was detained in France before
completing his medical education; he was physician to Westminster, Bridewell and Bethlem
hospitals. He was a friend of Thomas Manning and Charles Lamb; Mary Lamb was among his
patients.
