in Stuart's time; his political articles also helped
enormously to give the paper prestige. Stuart sold the _Morning Post_
in 1803 for L25,000, and then turned his attention to the development
of _The Courier_, an evening paper, in which he also had occasional
assistance from Coleridge and more regular help from Mackintosh.

Lamb's memory served him badly in the essay. So far as I can discover,
his connection with the _Morning Post_, instead of ending when Stuart
sold the paper, can hardly be said to have existed until after that
event. The paper changed hands in September, 1803 (two years after the
failure of The _Albion_), and Lamb's hand almost immediately begins to
be apparent. He had, we know, made earlier efforts to get a footing
there, but had been only moderately successful. The first specimens
prepared for Stuart, in 1800, were not accepted. In the late summer of
1801 he was writing for the _Morning Chronicle_--a few comic letters,
as I imagine--under James Perry; but that lasted only a short time. At
the end of 1801 Lamb tried the _Post_ again. In January and February,
1802, Stuart printed some epigrams by him on public characters, two
criticisms of G.F. Cooke, in Richard III. and Lear, and the essay "The
Londoner" (see Vol. I.). Probably there were also some paragraphs. In
a letter to Rickman in January, 1802, Lamb says that he is leaving
the _Post_, partly on account of his difficulty in writing dramatic
criticisms on the same night as the performance.

We know nothing of Lamb's journalistic adventures between February,
1802, and October, 1803, when the fashion of pink stockings came in,
and when he was certainly back on the _Post_ (Stuart having sold it to
establish _The Courier_), and had become more of a journalist than he
had ever been. I quote a number of the paragraphs which I take to be
his on this rich topic; but the specimen given in the essay is not
discoverable:--

"_Oct_. 8.--The fugitive and mercurial matter, of which a _Lady's
blush_ is made, after coursing from its natural position, the
_cheek_, to the _tip_ of the _elbow_, and thence diverging for a
time to the _knee_, has finally settled in the _legs_, where, in
the form of a pair of _red hose_, it combines with the posture and
situation of _the times_, to put on a most _warlike_ and _martial
appearance_."

"_Nov_. 2.--Bartram, who, as a _traveller_, was possessed of a
very _lively fancy_, describes v