medicine to be prescribed with great care : Lloyd certainly was not suited to take it. There can be no question that for the dissension which 1798 was to bring forth Nehemiah Higginbottom was much to blame.

'EDMUND OLIVER

IV

AND THE 'THESES'

1798

IN London, Charles Lloyd shared lodgings with James White, schoolfellow of Lamb, friend of chimney-sweepers, and the author of 'Original Letters, &c., of Sir John Falstaff' (1796). For hearty, joyous humour, tinged with Shakespearian fancy,' says Talfourd, 'White was held by Lamb to have no equal.' 'Among his intimates,' says Gutch, a schoolfellow of Lamb and White, 'he was called "Sir John." The picture of this genial neo-Elizabethan presiding over a free free supper to chimneysweepers is one of the glories of 'Elia.' The passage is a commonplace, yet let a few sentences lend good humour to this book:

In those little temporary parlours three tables were spread with napery, not so fine as substantial, and at every board a comely hostess presided with her pan of hissing sausage. The nostrils of the

young rogues dilated at the savour. JAMES WHITE, as head waiter, had charge of the first table; and myself, with our trusty companion BIGOD, ordinarily ministered to the other two. There was clambering and jostling, you may be sure, who should get at the first table-for Rochester in his maddest days could not have done the humours of the scene with

more spirit than my friend. After some general expression of thanks for the honour the company had done him, his inaugural ceremony was to clasp the greasy waist of old dame Ursula (the fattest of the three), that stood frying and fretting, half blessing, half cursing 'the gentleman,' and imprint upon her chaste lips a tender salute, whereat the universal host would set up a shout that tore the concave, while hundreds of grinning teeth startled the night with their brightness. O it was а pleasure to see the sable younkers lick in the unctuous meat, with his more unctuous sayingshow he could fit the tit-bits to the puny months, reserving the lengthier links for the seniors-how he would intercept a morsel even in the jaws of some young desperado, declaring it 'must to the pan again to be browned, for it was not fit for a gentleman's eating'-how he would recommend this slice of white bread or that piece of kissing-crust to a tender juvenile, advising them all to have a care of cracking their teeth, which were their best patrimony,-how genteelly he would deal about the small ale, as if it were wine, naming the brewer, and protesting, if it were not good, he should lose their custom; with a special recommendation to wipe the lip before drinking. Then we had our toasts

E

'The King,'-'The Cloth,'-which, whether they understood or not, was equally diverting and flattering; and for a crowning sentiment, which never failed, May the Brush supersede the Laurel !' All these, and fifty other fancies, which were rather felt than comprehended by his guests, would he utter, standing upon tables, and prefacing every sentiment with a 'Gentlemen, give me leave to propose so-and-so,' which was a prodigious comfort to those young orphans; every now and then stuffing into his mouth (for it did not do to be squeamish on these occasions) indiscriminate pieces of those reeking sausages, which pleased them mightily, and was the savouriest part, you may believe, of the entertainment.

Golden lads and lassies must,

As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.'

JAMES WHITE is extinct, and with him these suppers have long ceased. He carried away with him half the fun of the world when he died—-of my world at least.

With such a character, then, was Lloyd living at the end of 1797 and beginning of 1798. 'No two men,' as Southey said, could be imagined more unlike each other. Lloyd had no drollery in his nature; White seemed to have nothing else. You will easily understand how Lamb could sympathise with both.'

It was during Lloyd's domestication with

James White that the first signs of ill-feeling between Lloyd and Lamb were visible. In the middle of January 1798 Lamb wrote to Coleridge :

'I had well nigh quarrelled with Charles Lloyd; and for no other reason, I believe, than that the good creature did all he could to make me happy. The truth is, I thought he tried to force my mind from its natural and proper bent. He continually wished me to be from home; he was drawing me from the consideration of my poor dear Mary's situation, rather than assisting me to gain a proper view of it with religious consolations. I wanted to be left to the tendency of my own mind, in a solitary state, which, in times past, I knew had led to quietness and a patient bearing of the yoke. He was hurt that I was not more constantly with him; but he was living with White, a man to whom I had never been accustomed to impart my dearest feelings, tho' from long habits of friendliness, and many a social and good quality, I loved him very much. I met company there sometimes-indiscriminate company. Any society almost, when I am in affliction, is sorely painful to me. I seem to breathe more freely, to think more collectedly,