Peter sat by the celestial gate:His keys were rusty, and the lock was dull.
Page 268, line 19. A life of George Fox. Southey was collecting for some years materials for a life of George Fox, the first Quaker, but he did not carry out the project.
Page 268, line 22. The Methodists are shy. Southey's Life of Wesley was published in 1820. It was greatly admired by Coleridge.
Page 268, line 24. The errors of that Church. See Southey's "Ballads and Metrical Tales" again, for comic versions of legends of saints.
Page 269, line 26. And N. Randal Norris, Sub-Treasurer of the Inner Temple, who died in 1827.
Page 269, line 27. T. N. T. Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795–1854), the advocate, author of "Ion" who was to become Lamb's executor and biographer. He wrote an enthusiastic and discriminating essay on Wordsworth's genius in the New Monthly Magazine.
Page 269, line 31. And W. Thomas Griffiths Wainewright (1794–1852), essayist, painter and criminal, who contributed gay and whimsical articles to the London Magazine over the signature "Janus Weathercock." Subsequently Wainewright was convicted of forgery, and he became also a poisoner; but he seems to have shown Lamb only his most charming side.
Page 269, line 32. The translator of Dante. Henry Francis Cary (1772–1844), whose Inferno appeared in 1805, the whole poem being completed in 1812. He contributed to the London Magazine. Later in life Cary, then assistant keeper of the printed books in the British Museum, became one of Lamb's closer friends. He wrote the epitaph on his grave.
Page 269, line 33. And Allan C. Allan Cunningham (1784–1842), the Scotch ballad writer and author, and a regular contributor to the London Magazine over the signature "Nalla."
Page 269, line 34. And P——r. Bryan Walter Procter (1787–1874), better known as Barry Cornwall, another contributor to the London Magazine. He afterwards, 1866–1868, wrote a Memoir of Lamb.
Page 269, line 35. A——p. Thomas Allsop (1795–1880), a stock-broker, whose sympathies were with advanced social movements. He has been called the favourite disciple of Coleridge. In 1836 he issued a volume entitled Letters, Conversations and Recollections of Coleridge, which contains many interesting references to Lamb.
Page 269, line 35. G——n. James Gillman, a doctor, residing at the Grove, Highgate, who received Coleridge into his house, in 1816, as a patient, and kept him there to the end as a friend. He afterwards began a Life of him, which was not, however, completed. Coleridge at this time, 1823, was nearly fifty-one.
Page 269, line 38. Salutation tavern. The Salutation and Cat, the tavern at 17 Newgate Street, opposite Christ's Hospital, where Lamb and Coleridge most resorted in the '90's. Now a new building.
Page 269, line 39. Pantisocracy. The chief Pantisocrats—Coleridge, Southey and Robert Lovell—who all married sisters, a Miss Fricker falling to each—were, with a few others—George Burnett among them and Favell—to establish a new and ideal communism in America on the banks of the Susquehanna. Two hours' work a day was to suffice them for subsistence, the remaining time being spent in the cultivation of the intellect. This was in 1794. Southey, however, went to Portugal, Lovell died, Coleridge was Coleridge, and Pantisocracy disappeared.
Page 269, line 40. W——th. William Wordsworth, the poet.
Page 270, line 1. And M. Thomas Monkhouse, who died in 1825, a cousin of Mary Hutchinson, William Wordsworth's wife, and of Sarah Hutchinson, her sister, and Lamb's correspondent.
Page 270, line 2. H. C. R. Henry Crabb Robinson (1775–1867), the diarist and the friend of the Lambs until their death. In Crabb Robinson's reminiscences of Lamb is this passage:—
I felt flattered by the being mingled with the other of Lamb's friends under the initials of my name. I mention it as an anecdote which shows that Lamb's reputation was spread even among lawyers, that a 4 guinea brief was brought to me by an Attorney an entire stranger, at the following Assizes, by direction of another Attorney also a stranger, who knew nothing more of me than that I was Elia's H. C. R.
Page 270, line 3. Clarkson. Thomas Clarkson (1760–1846), the great opponent of slavery, whom Lamb met in the Lakes in 1802.
Page 270, line 6. Dyer. George Dyer (1755–1841), whom we meet so often in Lamb's writings.
Page 270, line 7. The veteran Colonel. Colonel Phillips, Admiral Burney's brother-in-law. He married Susanna Burney, who died in 1800. Phillips, once an officer in the Marines, had sailed with Cook, and was a witness of his death. He had known Dr. Johnson, and a letter on the great man from his pen is printed in J. T. Smith's Book for a Rainy Day.
Page 270, line 9. W. A. William Ayrton (1777–1858), the musical critic; in Hazlitt's praise, "the Will Honeycomb of our set."
Page 270, line 12. Admiral Burney. Rear-Admiral Burney (1750–1821), brother of Fanny Burney, Madame D'Arblay. The Admiral lived in Little James Street, Pimlico. For a further account of this circle of friends see Hazlitt's essay "On the Conversation of Authors" (The Plain Speaker). Hazlitt's own share in the gathering ceased after an unfortunate discussion of Fanny Burney's Wanderer, which Hazlitt condemned in terms that her brother, the Admiral, could not forgive. Hence, perhaps, to some extent, Hazlitt's description of the old seaman as one who "had you at an advantage by never understanding you." Later, in his essay "On the Pleasures of Hating," also in The Plain Speaker, Hazlitt wrote:—
What is become of "that set of whist-players," celebrated by Elia in his notable Epistle to Robert Southey, Esq. (and now I think of it—that I myself have celebrated in this very volume), "that for so many years called Admiral Burney friend?" They are scattered, like last year's snow. Some of them are dead, or gone to live at a distance, or pass one another in the street like strangers, or if they stop to speak, do it as coolly and try to cut one another as soon as possible. Some of us have grown rich, others poor. Some have got places under Government, others a niche
