" This
came out in 1800, and was very speedily damned; although Lamb said that
"it had one fine line;" which indeed he repeated occasionally. Godwin bore
this failure, it must be admitted, without being depressed by it, although
he was a very poor man, and although he was "five hundred pounds _ideal_
money out of pocket by the failure."
In 1802 Lamb visited Coleridge, who was then living near Keswick, in
Cumberland. For the first time in his life he beheld lakes and mountains;
and the effect upon him was startling and unexpected. It was much like the
impression made by the first sight of the Alps upon Leigh Hunt, who had
theretofore always maintained that those merely great heaps of earth ought
to have no effect upon a properly constituted mind; but he freely
confessed afterwards, that he had been mistaken. Lamb had been more than
once invited to visit the romantic Lake country. He had no desire to
inspect the Ural chain, where the malachite is hidden, nor the silver
regions of Potosi; but he was all at once affected by a desire of
"visiting remote regions." It was a sudden irritability, which could only
be quieted by travel.
Charles and his sister therefore went, without giving any notice to
Coleridge, who, however, received them very kindly, and gave up all his
time in order to show them the wonders of the neighborhood.
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