he wordiest authors! Of all they said
or did in their lifetime, a few glittering words only! His Essays
found some favourers, as they appeared separately; they shuffled
their way in the crowd well enough singly; how they will _read_,
now they are brought together, is a question for the publishers,
who have thus ventured to draw out into one piece his 'weaved-up
follies.'

"PHIL-ELIA."

This passage calls for some remark. Cousin Bridget was, of course,
Mary Lamb.--Lamb repeated the joke about his _Works_ in his
"Autobiography" (see Vol. I.) and in "The Superannuated Man."--Some
record of certain of the old clerks mentioned by Lamb still remains;
but I can find nothing of the others. Whether or not Peter Corbet
really derived from the Bishop we do not know, but the facetious
Bishop Corbet was Richard Corbet (1582-1635), Bishop of Oxford and
Norwich, whose conviviality was famous and who wrote the "Fairies'
Farewell." John Hoole (1727-1803), who translated Tasso and wrote the
life of Scott of Amwell and a number of other works, was principal
auditor at the end of his time at the India House. He retired about
1785, when Lamb was ten years old. Writing to Coleridge on January 5,
1797, Lamb speaks of Hoole as "the great boast and ornament of the
India House," and says that he found Tasso, in Hoole's translation,
"more vapid than smallest small beer sun-vinegared." The moderniser
of Walton would be Moses Browne (1704-1787), whose edition of _The
Complete Angler_, 1750, was undertaken at the suggestion of Dr.
Johnson.

* * * * *

Page 174. BLAKESMOOR IN H----SHIRE

_London Magazine_, September, 1824.

With this essay Lamb made his reappearance in the magazine, after
eight months' absence.

By Blakesmoor Lamb meant Blakesware, the manor-house near Widford, in
Hertfordshire, where his grandmother, Mary Field, had been housekeeper
for many years. Compare the essay "Dream-Children."

Blakesware, which was built by Sir Francis Leventhorpe about 1640,
became the property of the Plumers in 1683, being then purchased by
John Plumer, of New Windsor, who died in 1718. It descended to William
Plumer, M.P. for Yarmouth, in the Isle of Wight, and afterwards for
Hertfordshire, who died in 1767, and was presumably Mrs. Field's first
employer. His widow and the younger children remained at Blakesware
until Mrs. Plumer's death in 1778, but the eldest son, William Plumer,
mov