ived Lamb was jesting with him; but as no one
followed his example he thought there might be something in it, and
waited for an explanation in a state of whimsical suspense....

"When Lamb had given his explanation, some one inquired of him if he
could not see from the window the Temple walk in which Chaucer used to
take his exercise, and on his name being put to the vote I was pleased
to find there was a general sensation in his favour in all but Ayrton,
who said something about the ruggedness of the metre, and even objected
to the quaintness of the orthography....

"Captain Burney muttered something about Columbus, and Martin Burney
hinted at the Wandering Jew; but the last was set aside as spurious, and
the first made over to the New World.

"'I should like,' said Mr. Reynolds, 'to have seen Pope talking with
Patty Blount, and I _have_ seen Goldsmith.' Everyone turned round to
look at Mr. Reynolds, as if by so doing they too could get a sight of
Goldsmith....

"Erasmus Phillips, who was deep in a game of piquet at the other end of
the room, whispered to Martin Burney to ask if Junius would not be a fit
person to invoke from the dead. 'Yes,' said Lamb, 'provided he would
agree to lay aside his mask.'

"We were now at a stand for a short time, when Fielding was mentioned as
a candidate. Only one, however, seconded the proposition. 'Richardson?'
'By all means; but only to look at him through the glass-door of his
back-shop, hard at work upon one of his novels (the most extraordinary
contrast that ever was presented between an author and his works), but
not to let him come behind his counter, lest he should want you to turn
customer; nor to go upstairs with him, lest he should offer to read the
first manuscript of "Sir Charles Grandison," which was originally
written in twenty-eight volumes octavo; or get out the letters of his
female correspondents to prove that "Joseph Andrews" was low.'

"There was but one statesman in the whole of English history that any
one expressed the least desire to see--Oliver Cromwell, with his fine,
frank, rough, pimply face and wily policy--and one enthusiast, John
Bunyan, the immortal author of 'The Pilgrim's Progress.'....

"Of all persons near our own time, Garrick's name was received with the
greatest enthusiasm. He presently superseded both Hogarth and Handel,
who had been talked of, but then it was on condition that he should sit
in tragedy and comedy, in the play and the farce