LIONS OF LONDON. 283 



lar recess, so cribbed and small, where he and Boswell 

 enjoyed their talk eighty years ago or more. Each court 

 of interest in Fleet Street we visited, including that one 

 (Crane Court) where, in Sir Isaacs days, the Royal Society 

 met, and where the Scottish Corporation now transacts its 

 business. We looked into the narrow lane nearly opposite 

 Newgate, where Goldsmith wrote the ' Vicar of Wakefield,' 

 glanced at the scene of the Cock Lane ghost, and stood 

 where the martyrs suffered near St Bartholomew's. We 

 finished off our peregrinations by a visit to the curious 

 courts and involve I streets among which, almost buried, 

 stands the old Dutch Church in Austin Friars, with its 

 Gothic windows, sunk porch, and sun-dial, and its church- 

 yard, where we found flourishing a fig-tree and limes, that 

 looked fresh and delightful amidst the bricks and dust of 

 London. No wonder that Charles Lamb loved London. 

 Who loves it not that knows it ? 



" He had a pleasant face, and an eye of extreme hu- 

 mour, though gentle withal. Although remarkably alive 

 to the ridiculous, or rather to the funny aspect of things 

 and occurrences, he was the reverse of cynical. His kind- 

 ness was a natural gift, welling through the glasses of his 

 golden spectacles evermore, attracting good-will and dis- 

 arming controversy ; and every one came in for a share. 

 Among the last times I saw him was at his lodging in 

 Bloomsbury Street, as he and his niece were starting for 



