" He seems never to have
looked into the Future. His eyes were on the present or (oftener) on the
past. It was always thus from his boyhood. His first readings were
principally Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger, Isaac Walton, &c. "I gather
myself up" (he writes) "unto the old things." He has indeed extracted the
beauty and innermost value of Antiquity, whenever he has pressed it into
his service.
CHAPTER II.
_Birth and Parentage.--Christ's Hospital.--South Sea House and India
House.--Condition of Family.--Death of Mother.--Mary in Asylum.--John
Lamb.--Charles's Means of Living.--His Home.--Despondency.--Alice W.--
Brother and Sister._
On the south side of Fleet Street, near to where it adjoins Temple Bar,
lies the Inner Temple. It extends southward to the Thames, and contains
long ranges of melancholy buildings, in which lawyers (those reputed birds
of prey) and their followers congregate. It is a district very memorable.
About seven hundred years ago, it was the abiding-place of the Knights
Templars, who erected there a church, which still uplifts its round tower
(its sole relic) for the wonder of modern times. Fifty years since, I
remember, you entered the precinct through a lowering archway that opened
into a gloomy passage--Inner Temple Lane.
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