Cambridge Days. 105 



Graham. He would probably have made a 

 very moderate official, and his roving life, 

 from county to county, from stud farm to 

 racing stable, from one kennel of hounds to 

 another, from race meeting to coursing meet- 

 ing, from spots sanctified in his eyes by 

 having been the birthplaces of illustrious 

 race-horses to the graves in which Derby or 

 St. Leger winners were buried, would have 

 been exchanged for a dull daily walk from 

 Kensington to the Admiralty and back for 

 dinner. There have been clerks like Charles 

 Lamb, in whom the literary vein was so 

 strong that even the atmosphere of the India 

 Office could not repress it. Charles Lamb 

 entered that great Department of State (as it 

 then was) in 1792, and retired upon a pen- 

 sion in 1825. His first poems appeared in 

 1798, and from that time forward his pen 

 never was idle. From it flowed in rapid 

 succession dramas of which the very names 

 are now forgotten, and criticisms and essays 

 some of which will only perish with the 

 English language. 



The first series of "Essays of Elia" ap- 

 peared in the London Magazine between 



