Preface. 



for " logger-headed chub," to liften to his difcourfe, to 

 learn his fongs by heart, to flore up his precepts, and 

 to fteep my boyifh mind in the picl:urefque darknefs 

 of his manifold fuperftitions. 1 



Though no angler himfelf, Lamb was a lover of 

 angling books, and I well remember his relating to me, 

 as he paced to and fro, a quaint, fcholaftic figure, under 

 the apple-tree aforefaid, how he had pounced upon his 

 early copy, in fome ramfhackled repofitory of marine 

 ftores, and how grievous had been his difappointment 

 in finding that its unlikely-looking owner knew as 

 much of its mercantile value as himfelf. 



This is my affociation, dear Reader ; doubtlefs you 

 can pair it off with one, perhaps many, of your own. 



And, having thus attempted to juftify my difcurfive- 

 nefs, by force of fentiment, if on no better grounds, I 



to Canterbury and Becket's fhrine : and their laughter comes never 

 to an end, and their talk goes on with the ftars, and all the railroads 

 which may interfecl: the fpoilt earth for ever, cannot hum the " tramp, 

 tramp," of their horfes' feet." — The Greek Chrijilan Poets and the 

 Englijh Poets, p. 112. 



1 Lamb alfo pofTefTed a copy of one of Bagfter's reprints, much 

 efteemed by him on account of its plates, fome clever copies of which, 

 by his adopted daughter, Emma Ifola, (the " Ifola Bella whom the 

 poets love," of Barry Cornwall's fonnet), ornamented the walls of 

 his fittine-room. 



