Lamb's letter was unknown to his sister until after it appeared in the
Magazine, it being his practice to write his letters in Leadenhall Street.
It caused her a good deal of annoyance when she saw it in print. It is
pleasant to think, however, that it was the means of restoring the old
intimacy between Southey and Lamb, and also of strengthening the
friendship between Lamb and Hazlitt, which some misunderstanding, at that
time, had a little loosened.
When I was married (October, 1824), Lamb sent me a congratulatory letter,
which, as it was not published by Sir T. Talfourd, and is, moreover,
characteristic, I insert here, from the MS.
"MY DEAR PROCTER: I do agnize a shame in not having been to pay my
congratulations to Mrs. Procter and your happy self; but on Sunday (my
only morning) I was engaged to a country walk; and in virtue of the
hypostatical union between us, when Mary calls, it is understood that I
call too, we being univocal.
"But indeed I am ill at these ceremonious inductions. I fancy I was not
born with a call on my head, though I have brought one down upon it with a
vengeance. I love not to pluck that sort of frail crude, but to stay its
ripening into visits.
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