drawn, there would be a ring at the gate-bell, perhaps at dinner time.  His spectacles would be elevated, an anxious expression would steal over his face, as he half raised himself from his seat, to obtain a glance at the intruder—­“Ah, I thought so, I expected as much,” he would gently say.  “I expected I should soon have a visit from poor Mrs. ——­ or Mrs. ——.  Will you excuse me, my dear madam,” (to my grandmother) “for a moment, while I just tell her it is quite out of my power to help her?” counting silver into his hand all the time.  Then, a parley would ensue at the hall-door—­complainant telling her tale in a doleful voice:  “My good woman, I really cannot,” etc.; and at last the hall-door would be shut.  “Well, sir,” my grandmother used to say, as Mr. Paice returned to his seat, “I do not think you have sent Mrs. ——­ away quite penniless.”  “Merely enough for a joint of meat, my good madam—­just a trifle to buy her a joint of meat.”

Family Pictures should be consulted by any one who would know more of this gentleman and of Susan Winstanly.

Page 92, line 5. Edwards.  Thomas Edwards (1699-1757), author of Canons of Criticism, 1748.  The sonnet in question, which was modelled on that addressed by Milton to Cyriack Skinner, was addressed to Paice, as the author’s nephew, bidding him carry on the family line.  Paice, however, as Lamb tells us, did not marry.

* * * * *

Page 94.  THE OLD BENCHERS OF THE INNER TEMPLE.

London Magazine, September, 1821.

Lamb’s connection with the Temple was fairly continuous until 1817, when he was thirty-eight.  He was born at No. 2 Crown Office Row in 1775, and he did not leave it, except for visits to Hertfordshire, until 1782, when he entered Christ’s Hospital.  There he remained, save for holidays, until 1789, returning then to Crown Office Row for the brief period between leaving school and the death of Samuel Salt, under whose roof the Lambs dwelt, in February, 1792.  The 7 Little Queen Street, the 45 and 36 Chapel Street, Pentonville, and the first 34 Southampton Buildings (with Gutch) periods, followed; but in 1801 Lamb and his sister were back in the Temple again, at 16 Mitre Court Buildings, since rebuilt.  They moved from there, after a brief return to 34 Southampton Buildings, to 4 Inner Temple Lane (since rebuilt and now called Johnson’s Buildings) in 1809, where they remained until the move to 20 Great Russell Street in 1817.  With each change after that (except for another and briefer sojourn in Southampton Buildings in 1830), Lamb’s home became less urban.  His last link with the Temple may be said to have snapped with the death of Randal Morris, sub-treasurer of the Inner Temple, in 1827 (see “A Death-Bed"), although now and then he slept at Crabb Robinson’s chambers.

The Worshipful Masters of the Bench of the Hon. Society of the Inner Temple—­to give the Benchers their full title—­have the government of the Inner Temple in their hands.