[Charles Lamb, Coleridge's associate of the "Cat and Salutation" days, remained a close friend to the last, and he plays an important part in the Highgate period. Among Lamb's letters, edited by Canon Ainger, are sixty-two to Coleridge; and there are a few to Allsop and James Gillman from 1821 onward. The next fourteen letters to Allsop reflect the relationship of the little circle of the Lambs and Gillman and Coleridge. LETTER 188. TO ALLSOP Blandford-place, March 1st, 1821. My dearest Friend, God bless you, and all who are dear and near to you! but as to your pens, they seem to have been plucked from the _devil's_ pinions, and slit and shaped by the blunt edge of the broad sprays of his antlers. Of the ink (_i.e._ your inkstand), it would be base to complain. I hate abusing folks in their _absence_. Do you know, my dear friend, that having sundry little snug superstitions of my own, I shrewdly suspect that whimsical ware of that sort is connected with the state and garniture of your paper-staining machinery.--Is it so? Well, I have seen Murray, and he has been civil, I may say kind, in his manners. Is this your knock?--Is it you on the stairs?--No. I explained my full purpose to him, namely,--that he should take me and my concerns, past and future, for print and reprint, under his umbrageous foliage, though the original name of his great predecessor in the patronage of genius, who gave the name of Augustan to all happy epochs--Octavius would be more appropriate--and he promises,--_cætera desunt_. LETTER 189. TO ALLSOP May 4th, 1821. My dear Friend, Mr. and Mrs. Gillman's kind love, and we beg that the good lady's late remembering that (as often the very fullness and vividness of the purpose and intention to do a thing imposes on the mind a sort of counterfeit feeling of quiet, similar to the satisfaction which the having done it would produce) you had not been written to, will not prejudice the present attempt at "better late than never." We have a party _to-morrow_, in which, because we believed it would interest you, you stood included. In addition to a neighbour Robert Sutton, and ourselves, and Mrs. Gillman's most un-Mrs. Gillmanly sister (but _n. b._ this is a secret to all who are both blind and deaf), there will be the Mathews (Mr. and Mrs.) _at home_, Mathews I mean, and Charles and Mary Lamb. Of myself the best thing that I can say is that, in the belief of those well qualified to judge, I am not so ill as I fancy myself. Be this as it may, I am always, my dearest friend, With highest esteem and regard, Your affectionate friend, S. T. COLERIDGE. T. Allsop, Esq. * * * * *