16 Mitre Court Buildings, in the Temple, "a pistol shot off Baron
Masere's;" and here he resided for about nine years.
It was during his stay at Pentonville that he "fell in love" with a young
Quaker, called Hester Savory. As (he confesses) "I have never spoken to
her during my life," it may be safely concluded that the attachment was
essentially Platonic. This was the young girl who inspired those verses,
now so widely known and admired. I remember them as being the first lines
which I ever saw of Charles Lamb's writing. I remember and admire them
still, for their natural, unaffected style; no pretence, no straining for
images and fancies flying too high above the subject, but dealing with
thoughts that were near his affections, in a fit and natural manner. The
conclusion of the poem, composed and sent after her death (in February,
1803) to Manning, who was then in Paris, is very sad and tender:--
My sprightly neighbor, gone before
To that unknown and silent shore,
Shall we not meet, as heretofore,
Some summer morning?
When from thy cheerful eyes a ray
Hath struck a bliss upon the day,
A bliss that will not go away,
A sweet forewarning.
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