Lamb lies buried in Edmonton churchyard, and the stone bears the
following lines to his memory, written by his friend, the Rev. H. F.
Cary, the erudite translator of _Dante_ and _Pindar_:--
“Farewell, dear friend!--that smile, that harmless mirth,
No more shall gladden our domestic hearth;
That rising tear, with pain forbid to flow--
Better than words--no more assuage our woe.
That hand outstretch’d from small but well-earned store
Yield succour to the destitute no more.
Yet art thou not all lost: through many an age,
With sterling sense and humour, shall thy page
Win many an English bosom, pleased to see
That old and happier vein revived in thee.
This for our earth; and if with friends we share
Our joys in heaven, we hope to meet thee there.”
Lamb survived his earliest friend and school-fellow, Coleridge, only a
few months. One morning he showed to a friend the mourning ring which
the author of _Christabelle_ had left him. “Poor fellow!” exclaimed
Lamb, “I have never ceased to think of him from the day I first heard of
his death.” Lamb died in _five days after_--December 27, 1834, in his
fifty-ninth year.
“TOM CRINGLE’S LOG.”
The author of this very successful work, (originally published in
_Blackwood’s Magazine_,) was a Mr. Mick Scott, born in Edinburgh in
1789, and educated at the High School. Several years of his life were
spent in the West Indies. He ultimately married, returned to his native
country, and there embarked in commercial speculations, in the leisure
between which he wrote the _Log_. Notwithstanding its popularity in
Europe and America, the author preserved his incognito to the last. He
survived his publisher for some years, and it was not till Mr. Scott’s
death that the sons of Mr. Blackwood were aware of his name.