th's Album, and
poem written at Wast-water. C.L."

The Bury Robinsons were Crabb Robinson's brother and other relatives,
whom Miss Isola had met when at Fornham.]

LETTER 549

CHARLES LAMB TO WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR

[No date. October, 1832.]

Dear Sir, pray accept a little volume. 'Tis a legacy from Elia, you'll
see. Silver and Gold had he none, but such as he had, left he you. I do
not know how to thank you for attending to my request about the Album. I
thought you would never remember it. Are not you proud and thankful,
Emma?

Yes, _very, both_-- EMMA ISOLA.

Many things I had to say to you, which there was not time for. _One_ why
should I forget? 'tis for Rose Aylmer, which has a charm I cannot
explain. I lived upon it for weeks.--

Next I forgot to tell you I knew all your Welch annoyancers, the
measureless Beethams. I knew a quarter of a mile of them. 17 brothers
and 16 sisters, as they appear to me in memory. There was one of them
that used to fix his long legs on my fender, and tell a story of a
shark, every night, endless, immortal. How have I grudged the salt sea
ravener not having had his gorge of him!

The shortest of the daughters measured 5 foot eleven without her shoes.
Well, some day we may confer about them. But they were tall. Surely I
have discover'd the longitude--

Sir, If you can spare a moment, I should be happy to hear from you--that
rogue Robinson detained your verses, till I call'd for them. Don't
entrust a bit of prose to the rogue, but believe me

Your obliged C.L.

My Sister sends her kind regards.

[Crabb Robinson took Landor to see Lamb on September 28, 1832. The
following passage in Forster's _Life of Landor_ describes the visit and
explains this letter:--

The hour he passed with Lamb was one of unalloyed enjoyment. A letter
from Crabb Robinson before he came over had filled him with affection
for that most lovable of men, who had not an infirmity to which his
sweetness of nature did not give something of kinship to a virtue. "I
have just seen Charles and Mary Lamb," Crabb Robinson had written (20th
October, 1831), "living in absolute solitude at Enfield. I find your
poems lying open before Lamb. Both tipsy and sober he is ever muttering
_Rose Aylmer_. But it is not those lines only that have a curious
fascination for him. He is always turning to _Gebir_ for things that
haunt him in the same way." Their f