turn outs" had to
be cut in the hedges (visible to this day), like sidings on a
single-line railway, to permit others to pass. The Widford register
gives John Lilley, died October 18, 1812, aged 85, and Johanna Lilley,
died January 1, 1823, aged 90. It also gives Benjamin Carter's marriage,
in 1781, but not his death.

Stanza 4. _Clemitson's widow_. Mrs. Tween told Canon Ainger that
Clemitson was the farmer of Blakesware farm. I do not find the name in
the Widford register. An Elizabeth Clemenson is there.

Stanza 4. _Good Master Clapton_. There are several Claptons in Widford
churchyard. Thirty years from 1827, the date of the poem, takes us to
1797: the Clapton whose death occurred nearest that time is John Game
Clapton, May 5, 1802.

Stanza 5. _Tom Dockwra_. I cannot find definite information either
concerning this Dockwra or the William Dockwray, of Ware, of whom Lamb
wrote in his "Table Talk" in _The Athenaeum_, 1834 (see Vol. I.). There
was, however, a Joseph Docwray, of Ware, a Quaker maltster; and the late
Mrs. Coe, _nee_ Hunt, the daughter of the tenant of the water-mill at
Widford in Lamb's day, where Lamb often spent a night, told me that a
poor family named Docwray lived in the neighbourhood.

Stanza 6. _Worral ... Dorrell_. I find neither Worral nor Dorrell in the
Widford archives, but Morrils and Morrells in plenty, and one Horrel.
Lamb alludes to old Dorrell again in the _Elia_ essay "New Year's Eve,"
where he is accused of swindling the family out of money. Particulars of
his fraud have perished with him, but I have no doubt it is the same
William Dorrell who witnessed John Lamb's will in 1761. In the _Table
Book_ this stanza ended thus:--

With cuckoldy Worral,
And wicked old Dorrel,
'Gainst whom I've a quarrel--
His end might affright us.

Stanzas 8 and 9. _Fanny Hutton ... Betsy Chambers ... Miss Wither ...
Miss Waller_. Fanny Hutton, Betsy Chambers, Miss Wither and Miss Waller
elude one altogether. Lamb's schoolmistress, Mrs. Reynolds, was a Miss
Chambers.

* * * * *

Page 78. NEW POEMS IN LAMB'S _POETICAL WORKS_, 1836.

In 1836 Moxon issued a new edition of Lamb's poems, consisting of those
in the _Works_, 1818, and those in _Album Verses_--with a few
exceptions and several additions--under the embracive title _The
Poetical Works of Charles Lamb_. Whether Moxon himself made up this
volume, or whether Mary Lamb or Talfo