Starting Off

Abstract

London lies at the heart of England, and the Temple – where Charles Lamb was born on Da February 1775 – at the heart of London, just within the original City. The Temple was a place of venerable red brick buildings and green gardens directly touching on the river Thames at their foot.

I am a Christian, Englishman, Londoner, Templar. Lamb to Robert Southey (M iii, 155)

Streets, streets, streets, markets, theatres, churches, Covent Gardens, Shops sparkling with pretty faces of industrious milliners, neat sempstresses, Ladies cheapening, Gentlemen behind counters lying, Authors in the street, with spectacles,… Lamps lit at night, Pastry cook & Silver smith shops, Beautiful Quakers of Pentonville, noise of coaches, drowsy cry of mechanic watchmen at night, with Bucks reeling home drunk ifyou happen to wake at midnight, cries of fire & stop thief, Inns of court (with their learned air and halls and Butteries just like Cambridge colleges), old Book stalls, Jeremy Taylors, Burtons on melancholy, and Religio Medici’s on every stall—. These are thy Pleasures 0 London with the many sins … Lamb to Thomas Manning (M i, 248)