Where Blake and mighty Nelson fell 15 20 25 30 35 35 Till danger's troubled night depart THOMAS MOORE (1779-1852) 40 And work-work-work, 55 CHARLES LAMB (1775-1834) CHRIST'S HOSPITAL FIVE AND THIRTY YEARS AGO In Mr. Lamb's "Works," published a year or two since, I find a magnificent eulogy on my old school,' such as it was, or now appears to him to have been, between the years 1782 and 1789. It happens, very oddly, that my own standing at Christ's was nearly corresponding with his; and, with all gratitude to him for his enthusiasm for the cloisters, I think he has contrived to bring to- [10 gether whatever can be said in praise of them, dropping all the other side of the argument most ingeniously. I remember L. at school; and can well recollect that he had some peculiar ad When the weather is warm and bright- vantages, which I and others of his school While underneath the eaves The brooding swallows cling As if to show me their sunny backs "Oh! but to breathe the breath Of the cowslip and primrose sweetWith the sky above my head, And the grass beneath my feet; For only one short hour To feel as I used to feel, Before I knew the woes of want And the walk that costs a meal. "Oh! but for one short hour! A respite however brief! No blessed leisure for Love or Hope, But only time for Grief! A little weeping would ease my heart, But in their briny bed My tears must stop, for every drop Hinders needle and thread!" With fingers weary and worn, With eyelids heavy and red, A woman sat, in unwomanly rags, Stitch! stitch! stitch! In poverty, hunger, and dirt, 61 65 70 75 80 85 And still with a voice of dolorous pitch,— Would that its tone could reach the Rich! She sang this "Song of the Shirt!" fellows had not. His friends lived in town, and were near at hand; and he had the privilege of going to see them, almost as often as he wished, through some [20 invidious distinction, which was denied to us. The present worthy sub-treasurer to the Inner Temple can explain how that happened. He had his tea and hot rolls in a morning, while we were battening upon our quarter of a penny loaf our crug-moistened with attenuated small beer, in wooden piggins, smacking of the pitched leathern jack it was poured from. Our Monday's milk porritch, blue [30 and tasteless, and the pease soup of Saturday, coarse and choking, were enriched for him with a slice of "extraordinary bread and butter," from the hot-loaf of the Temple. The Wednesday's mess of millet, somewhat less repugnant-(we had three banyan to four meat days in the week) was endeared to his palate with a lump of double-refined, and a smack of ginger (to make it go down the [40 more glibly) or the fragrant cinnamon. In lieu of our half-pickled Sundays, or quite fresh boiled beef on Thursdays (strong as caro equina), with detestable marigolds floating in the pail to poison the broth our scanty mutton crags on Fridays and rather more savory, but |