Page 252, line 25. Basilian water-sponges. The Basilian order of monks were pledged to austerity; but probably Lamb intended merely a joke upon his friend Basil Montagu’s teetotalism (see note in Vol.  I. to “Confessions of a Drunkard,” a paper quoted in Montagu’s Some Enquiries into the Effects of Fermented Liquors).  In John Forster’s copy of the Last Essays of Elia, in the South Kensington Museum, a legacy from Elia, there is written “Basil Montagu!” against this passage.  Moreover the context runs, “we were right toping Capulets”—­as opposed to the (Basil) Montagus.

Page 253, line 23. Bob Allen. See the essay on “Christ’s Hospital” and note.

Page 253, line 24. The “Oracle." This daily paper was started in the 1780’s by Peter Stuart, Daniel Stuart’s brother, as a rival to The World (see below).

Page 253, line 31. Mr. Deputy Humphreys. I am disappointed to have been able to find nothing more about this Common Council butt.

Page 254, lines 11 and 12. The “True Briton,” the “Star,” the “Traveller.” The True Briton, a government organ in the 1790’s, which afterwards assimilated Cobbett’s Porcupine. The Star was founded by Peter Stuart, Daniel Stuart’s brother, in 1788.  It was the first London evening paper to appear regularly. The Traveller, founded about 1803, still flourishes under the better-known title of The Globe.

Page 254, lines 24-26. Este ...  Topham ...  Boaden.  Edward Topham (1751-1820), author of the Life of John Elwes, the miser, founded The World, a daily paper, in 1787.  Parson Este, the Rev. Charles Este, was one of his helpers.  James Boaden (1762-1839), dramatist, biographer and journalist, and editor of The Oracle for some years, wrote the Life of Mrs. Siddons, 1827.

Page 254, foot. The Albion.  Lamb’s memory of his connection with The Albion was at fault.  His statement is that he joined it on the sale of the Morning Post by Stuart, which occurred in 1803; but as a matter of fact his association with it was in 1801.  This we know from his letters to Manning in August of that year, quoting the epigram on Mackintosh (see below) and announcing the paper’s death.  Mackintosh, says Lamb, was on the eve of departing to India to reap the fruits of his apostasy—­referring to his acceptance of the post of Recordership of Bombay offered to him by Addington.  But this was a slip of memory.  Mackintosh’s name had been mentioned in connection with at least two posts before this—­a judgeship in Trinidad and the office of Advocate-General in Bengal, and Lamb’s epigram may have had reference to one or the other.  In the absence of a file of The Albion, which I have been unable to find, it is impossible to give exact dates or to reproduce any of Lamb’s other contributions.