472
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vn JUNE 15, 1907.
occurs during the course of a speech by Sir
William Wyndham in connexion with the
motion for repealing the Septennial Act.
The report of the Parliamentary debate
on this subject began in No. 89 of The Bee,
and extended into No. 96. The numbers
are not dated, and in the circumstances
perhaps this is immaterial, as the exact date
and order of the various speeches may be
obtained elsewhere. Walpole's speech came
after Sir William Wyndham's and apparently
just before the division which rejected
the motion. The claim of priority, there-
fore, would seem to be in favour of Wynd-
ham. W. ROBERTS.
The first Lord Ly tton seems to have firmly believed that Sir Robert Walpole was responsible for the saying " Every man has his price." Not only did he write a blank- verse comedy probably the very worst he ever wrote, both as to comedy and as to verse with the title ' Walpole ; or, Every Man has his Price,' in which he makes the minister exclaim in Act II. sc. i., Every man has his price, I must bribe left and right, and again in Act III. sc. ii.,
Every man has his price, my majority 's clear ; but in " Not so Bad as We Seem ' Lord Wilmot narrates an interview with the statesman, in which this passage occurs :
" ' Sir Robert,' says I, ' we men of the world soon come to the point ; 'tis a maxim of yours that all have their price.' ' Not tjuite that,' says Sir Robert, 4 but let us suppose that it is.' "
CLIFTON ROBBINS.
HOUSES OF HISTORICAL INTEREST (10 S.
v. 483 ; vi. 52, 91, 215, 356, 497 ; vii. 312,
413). It is a long time since I ventured
to suggest for the consideration of the
London County Council that a commemo-
rative tablet should be placed on Charles
Lamb's Islington house, and two years ago
I was informed that the Council was taking
steps to have this done. I am unable to
explain the delay that has ensued. No
doubt whatever exists with regard to the
house. It is no longer a detached building,
and a third of it has been sliced away, but
the principal rooms remain as they were in
Lamb's time, and a curious old arm-chair
in which the author of " Elia " is said to
have sat when engaged on his literary work
is still preserved in the office of Messrs.
Webb & Co., the owners of the property.
Any uncertainty which may have existed
with respect to the house, and which the
Editor's note shows is not yet entirely dis-
pelled, has been due partly to the loose way
in which Lamb described his residence, and
partly to the changes of nomenclature that
have been made in the district. Lamb in
his letter to Thomas Allsop (6 Sept., 1823)
describes the cottage as being at " the end of
Colebrook Row, on the western brink of the
New River " ; and in a later letter to Robert
Southey (21 Nov., 1823) he Says he is at
" Colebrook Cottage, Colebrook Row, Isling-
ton. A detached whitish house, close to the
New River, end of Colebrook Terrace, left
hand from Sadler's Wells." It will be
observed that in one letter Lamb describes
the cottage as being at the end of Colebrook
Row, and in another as being at the end of
Colebrook Terrace, which has since been in-
cluded in Duncan Terrace. Colebrook Row
was on the eastern bank of the New River :
Colebrook Terrace, or, as it was originally
called, " New Terrace," was on the western
bank. Lamb's cottage was really a detached
house at the end of this terrace, facing Cole-
brook Row. In course of time the cottage
was looked on as belonging to Camden Street,
at the end of which it stood, and it was
named No. 19, Camden Street. In 1890,
when the third edition of Mr. Wilmot Harri-
son' s 'Memorable London Houses,' as cited
by the Editor, was published, the house still
retained that designation. Mr. Harrison
made a slight error in describing the house
as 19, Camden Terrace, but in other
respects he was correct. In the same
year, 1890, the designation No. 19, Camden
Street, was altered to No. 64, Duncan
Terrace, which the house still retains.
No. 64, Duncan Terrace, is therefore Cole-
brook Cottage, in which Lamb resided for
about three years. The statement made by
Mr. Laurence Hutton and some other
writers that Lamb's cottage was No. 19,
Colebrook Row, is probably due to a con-
fusion with No. 19, Camden Street.
I have followed Lamb's spelling of " Cole- brook " Row, although it is not correct. The word was not a contraction of " Coin- brook," as Talfourd seems to have imagined, but was the surname of Sir George Cole- brooke, then Lord of the Manor of High- bury, in which the district was situated.
W. F. PRIDE AUX.
MR. BRESLAR does not guide us correctly " In the Footsteps of Charles Lamb." Mr. Martin's work of that title is to be preferred. Of course George Dyer did not walk " down the steep shrubby declivity into the canal," but deliberately marched " right forwards into the midst of the stream that runs by us" (' Amicus Redivivus'). The New
