e sun is dead.

I will not fail to apprise you of the revival of a Beam.

Meantime accept this, rather than think I have forgotten you all.

Best rememb

& Yours and theirs truly, C.L.

LETTER 440

CHARLES LAMB TO LEIGH HUNT

[No date. December, 1827.]

Dear H.,--I am here almost in the eleventh week of the longest illness
my sister ever had, and no symptoms of amendment. Some had begun, but
relapsed with a change of nurse. If she ever gets well, you will like my
house, and I shall be happy to show you Enfield country.

As to my head, it is perfectly at your or any one's service; either
M[e]yers' or Hazlitt's, which last (done fifteen or twenty years since)
White, of the Accountant's office, India House, has; he lives in Kentish
Town: I forget where, but is to be found in Leadenhall daily. Take your
choice. I should be proud to hang up as an alehouse sign even; or,
rather, I care not about my head or anything, but how we are to get well
again, for I am tired out.

God bless you and yours from the worst calamity.--Yours truly, C.L.

Kindest remembrances to Mrs. Hunt. H.'s is in a queer dress. M.'s would
be preferable _ad populum_.

[Leigh Hunt had asked Lamb for his portrait to accompany his _Lord Byron
and Some of His Contemporaries_. Lamb had been painted by Hazlitt in
1804, and by Henry Meyer, full size, in May, 1826, as well as by others.
Hunt chose Meyer's picture, which was beautifully engraved, for his
book, in the large paper edition. The original is now in the India
Office; a reproduction serves as the frontispiece to this volume. The
Hazlitt portrait, representing Lamb in the garb of a Venetian senator,
is now in the National Portrait Gallery; a reproduction serves as the
frontispiece to Vol. I. of this edition.]

LETTER 441

CHARLES LAMB TO WILLIAM HONE

[P.M. Dec. 15, 1827.]

My dear Hone, I read the sad accident with a careless eye, the newspaper
giving a wrong name to the poor Sufferer, but learn'd the truth from
Clarke. God send him ease, and you comfort in your thick misfortunes. I
am in a sorry state. Tis the eleventh week of the illness, and I cannot
get her well. To add to the calamity, Miss James is obliged to leave us
in a day or two. We had an Enfield Nurse for seven weeks, and just as
she seem'd mending, _she_ was call'd away. Miss J.'s coming seem'd to
put her back, and now she is going. I do not compare my sufferings to
yours, but