Chapter Laidlaw to Landor of L by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

which they were written was that of a fellow-clerk in the India House. They appeared from 1820-25. The first series was printed in 1823, the second, The Last Essays of Elia, in 1833. In 1823 the Lambs had left London and taken a cottage at Islington, and had practically adopted Emma Isola, a young orphan, whose presence brightened their lives until her marriage in 1833 to E. Moxon, the publisher. In 1825 Lamb retired, and lived at Enfield and Edmonton. But his health was impaired, and his sister’s attacks of mental alienation were ever becoming more frequent and of longer duration. During one of his walks he fell, slightly hurting his face. The wound developed into erysipelas, and he died on December 29, 1834. His sister survived until 1847.

The place of Lamb as an essayist and critic is the very highest. His only rival in the former department is Addison, but in depth and tenderness of feeling, and richness of fancy Lamb is the superior. In the realms of criticism there can be no comparison between the two. Lamb is here at once profound and subtle, and his work led as much as any other influence to the revival of interest in and appreciation of our older poetry. His own writings, which are self-revealing in a quite unusual and always charming way, and the recollections of his friends, have made the personality of Lamb more familiar to us than any other in our literature, except that of Johnson. His weaknesses, his oddities, his charm, his humour, his stutter, are all as familiar to his readers as if they had known him, and the tragedy and noble self- sacrifice of his life add a feeling of reverence for a character we already love.

Life and Letters and Final Memorials by Talfourd, also Memoir by B. W. Proctor and A. Ainger prefixed to editor of Works (1883-88). Life, Works, and Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, in 9 vols., E. V. Lucas, and 12 vols. editor W. Macdonald.

Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1802-1838).—Poetess, daughter of an army agent, was born in London. She was a prolific and, in her day, remarkably popular writer, but she wrote far too easily and far too much for permanent fame. Many of her poems appeared in the Literary Gazette, and similar publications, but she published separately The Fate of Adelaide (1821), The Improvisatrice (1824), The Troubadour (1825), The Venetian Bracelet (1829), etc. She also wrote a few novels, of which Ethel Churchill was the best, and a tragedy Castruccio Castracani (1837). She married a Mr. Maclean, Governor of one of the West African Colonies, where, shortly after her arrival, she was found dead from the effects of an overdose of poison, which it was supposed she had taken as a relief from spasms to which she was subject. She was best known by her initials, L. E. Landon, under which she was accustomed to write.

Landor, Walter Savage (1775-1864).—Poet and miscellaneous author, son of a physician, was born at Ipsley Court, Warwick, the property of his mother, and educated at Rugby and Oxford, where he earned the nickname of “the mad Jacobin,” and whence he was rusticated. His whole long life thereafter was a series of quarrels, extravagances, and escapades of various kinds, the result of his violent prejudices, love of paradox, and ungovernable temper. He quarrelled with his father, his wife, most of his relations, and nearly all his friends, ran through a large fortune, and ended his days in Italy supported by a pension granted by his brothers. Yet he was not devoid of strong affections and generosity. His earliest publication was Poems (1795); Gebir (1798), an epic, had little success, but won for him the friendship of Southey. In 1808 he went to Spain to take part in the war against Napoleon, and saw some service. His first work to attract attention was his powerful tragedy of Don Julian (1811). About the same time he married Miss Julia Thuillier—mainly, as would appear, on account of her “wonderful golden hair”—and purchased the estate of Llantony Abbey, Monmouthshire, whence, after various quarrels with the local authorities, he went to France. After a residence of a year there, he went in 1815 to Italy, where he lived until 1818 at Como, which, having insulated the authorities in a Latin poem, he had to leave. At Florence, which was his residence for some years, he commenced his famous Imaginary Conversations, of which the first two vols. appeared 1824, the third 1828, fourth and fifth 1829. Other works were The Examination of W. Shakespeare touching Deer-stealing (1834), Pericles and Aspasia (1836), Pentameron (1837), Hellenics (1847), and Poemata et Inscriptiones (1847). He quarrelled finally with his wife in 1835, and returned to England, which, however, he had to leave in 1858 on account of an action for libel arising out of a book, Dry Sticks Fagoted. He went to Italy, where he remained, chiefly at Florence, until his