" There is a good deal of humor in this paper (which has
not been republished, I believe). It professes to come from one of a club
of condemned authors, no person being admissible as a member until he had
been unequivocally damned.
I observe that in the letters, &c., of Lamb, which were published in 1841,
and copiously commented on by Sir Thomas N. Talfourd (the editor), there
is not much beyond a bare mention of Leigh Hunt's name, and no letter from
Charles Lamb to Mr. Hunt is published. It is now too late to remedy this
last defect, my recent endeavors to obtain such letters having resulted in
disappointment: otherwise I should have been very glad to record the
extent of Lamb's liking for a poor and able man, whom I knew well for at
least forty years. I know that at one time Lamb valued him, and that he
always thought highly of his intellect, as indeed he has testified in his
famous remonstrance to Southey. And in Mr. Hunt's autobiography I find
abundant evidence of his admiration for Lamb, in a generous eulogy upon
him.
Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, and Leigh Hunt, formed a remarkable trio of
men, each of whom was decidedly different from the others. Only one of
them (Hunt) cared much for praise.
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