Words. Sc Lady Morgan were invited to dine at I forget
whose house. The poet would on no account take her
downstairs, & he disturbed the table arrangements by
placing himself at the bottom when her ladyship was at the
top. She was either unobserving of his conduct or resolved
to show him she did not care for it, for she sent the servant
to beg him to drink a glass of wine with her. His look was
as solemn as if it had been a death summons. This I saw.
I was told she asked her neighbour Has not Mr. Words,
written some poems ? 26.xi.5 1.
1 825. I did not see any of my north-country friends this
year, that is 1825, & therefore this year wd. have been a
blank in the annals of my poetically minded friends but for
my frequent visits to dear Ch. L On the loth of Feb. I
saw in Lamb's chambers, says my journal, ''a forward,
talking young man " introduced to Lamb as his great ad-
mirer. " He will be a pleasant man enough when the obtru-
siveness of youth is worn away a little." Now this same
man, viz Harrison Ainsworth, is the author of numerous
popular romances of the class of Spanish Beggar & Bandit

85



COLERIDGE, WORDSWORTH, LAMB, (sfc

tales, constituting the old dailjr literature. They have been
& are still popular tho' of the most mischievous kind, his
heroes being generally banditti or highwaymen or political
characters of a deplorable notoriety — a man therefore who
could not venture to stand a ballot at the Athenseum.
