.]

Many thanks for the wrap-rascal, but how delicate the insinuating in,
into the pocket, of that 3-1/2d., in paper too! Who was it? Amelia,
Caroline, Julia, Augusta, or "Scots who have"?

As a set-off to the very handsome present, which I shall lay out in a
pot of ale certainly to _her_ health, I have paid sixpence for the mend
of two button-holes of the coat now return'd. She shall not have to say,
"I don't care a button for her."

Adieu, tres aimables!

Buttons 6d.
Gift 3-1/2

Due from ---- 2-1/2

which pray accept ... from your foolish coatforgetting

C.L.

[Joseph Hume we have met. Mr. Hazlitt writes: "Amelia Hume became Mrs.
Bennett, Julia Mrs. Todhunter. The latter personally informed me in 1888
that her Aunt Augusta perfectly recollected all the circumstances [of
the present note]. The incident seems to have taken place at the
residence of Mr. Hume, in Percy Street, Bloomsbury, and it was Amelia
who found the three-pence-halfpenny in the coat which Lamb left behind
him, and who repaired the button-holes. The sister who is described as
'Scots wha ha'e' was Louisa Hume; it was a favourite song with her."
Mrs. Todhunter supplied the date, 1832.]

LETTER 541

CHARLES LAMB TO CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE

[P.M. March 5, 1832.]

D'r Sir, My friend Aders, a German merchant, German born, has opend to
the public at the Suffolk St. Gallery his glorious Collection of old
Dutch and German Pictures. Pray see them. You have only to name my name,
and have a ticket--if you have not received one already. You will
possibly notice 'em, and might lug in the inclosed, which I wrote for
Hone's Year Book, and has appear'd only there, when the Pictures were at
home in Euston Sq. The fault of this matchless set of pictures is, _the
admitting a few Italian pictures with 'em_, which I would turn out to
make the Collection unique and pure. Those old Albert Durers have not
had their fame. I have tried to illustrate 'em. If you print my verses,
a Copy, please, for me.

[The first letter to Charles Wentworth Dilke (1789-1864), a friend of
Keats, Hunt and Hood, editor of Dodsley and at this time editor of _The
Athenaeum_. Lamb's verses ran thus:--

TO C. ADERS, ESQ.

_On his Collection of Paintings by the old German Masters_

Friendliest of men, Aders, I never come
Within the precincts of this sacred Room,
But I am struck wit