Page 16, line 14. The Tower.  Blue-coat boys still have this right of free entrance to the Tower; but the lions are no more.  They were transferred to the Zoological Gardens in 1831.

Page 16, line 16. L.’s governor.  Meaning Samuel Salt, M.P.; but it was actually his friend Mr. Timothy Yeats who signed Lamb’s paper.  More accurately, Lamb’s father lived under Salt’s roof.

Page 16, line 7 from foot. H——­.  According to Lamb’s Key this was Hodges; but in the British Museum copy of Elia, first edition, some one has written Huggins.  It is immaterial.  Nevis and St. Kitt’s (St. Christopher’s) are islands in the British West Indies.  Tobin would be James Webbe Tobin, of Nevis, who died in 1814, the brother of the playwright John Tobin, author of “The Honeymoon.”

Page 17, line 2. A young ass.  The general opinion at Christ’s Hospital is that Lamb invented this incident; and yet it has the air of being true.

Page 17, line 18. L.’s admired Perry.  John Perry, steward from 1761 to 1785, mentioned in Lamb’s earlier essay.

Page 17, foot. Gags.  Still current slang.

Page 17, foot. ——.  No name in the Key.  The quotation is an adaptation of:—­

  It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh
  Which some did die to look on.

  “Antony and Cleopatra,” Act I., Scene 4, lines 67-68.

It is perhaps worth remarking that in David Copperfield Dickens has a school incident of a similar character.

Page 18, line 14 from foot. Mr. Hathaway.  Matthias Hathaway, steward from 1790 to 1813.

Page 19, line 8. I was a hypochondriac lad.  Here Lamb drops the Coleridge mask and speaks as himself.

Page 20, line 15. Bamber Gascoigne, and Peter Aubert.  Bamber Gascoigne, M.P. (1725-1791), of Bifrons, in Essex.  Of Peter Aubert I can find nothing, except that the assistant secretary of the East India Company at the time Lamb wrote this essay was Peter Auber, afterwards full secretary.  His name here may be a joke.

Page 20, line 6 from foot. Matthew Field.  The Rev. Matthew Feilde, also vicar of Ugley and curate of Berden.  For the Rev. James Boyer see below.

Page 21, line 18. "Peter Wilkins,” etc.  The Adventures of Peter Wilkins, by Robert Paltock, 1751, is still read; but The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Robert Boyle, 1736, has had its day.  It was a blend of unconvincing travel and some rather free narrative:  a piece of sheer hackwork to meet a certain market.  See Lamb’s sonnet to Stothard, Vol.  IV. The Fortunate Blue-Coat Boy I have not seen.  Canon Ainger describes it as a rather foolish romance, showing how a Blue-coat boy marries a rich lady of rank.  The sub-title is “Memoirs of the Life and Happy Adventures of Mr. Benjamin Templeman; formerly a Scholar in Christ’s Hospital.  By an Orphanotropian,” 1770.