" Indeed, that
letter itself, humorous as it is, is so obviously manufactured in the
fabulous district of hyperbole, that it requires no disavowal. Manning,
however, returns to England not long afterwards; and then the
correspondence, if less humorous, is also less built up of
improbabilities. He corresponds also with Mr. Barron Field, who is
relegated to the Judicial Bench in New South Wales. Of him he inquires
about "The Land of Thieves;" he wants to know if their poets be not
plagiarists; and suggests that half the truth which his letters contain
"will be converted into lies" before they reach his correspondent. Mr.
Field is the gentleman to whom the pleasant paper on "Distant
Correspondents" is addressed.
In 1822 Charles Lamb and his sister travelled as far as Paris, neither of
them understanding a word of the French language. What tempted them to
undertake this expedition I never knew. Perhaps, as he formerly said, when
journeying to the Lakes, it was merely a daring ambition to see "remote
regions." The French journey seems to have been almost barren of good. He
brought nothing back in his memory, and there is no account whatever of
his adventures there. It has been stated that Mary Lamb was taken ill on
the road; but I do not know this with certainty.
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