Chapter CXLVII: Letter 411: Charles Lamb to Thomas Hood

[No date. May, 1827.]

Dearest Hood,--Your news has spoil'd us a merry meeting. Miss Kelly and we were coming, but your letter elicited a flood of tears from Mary, and I saw she was not fit for a party. God bless you and the mother (or should be mother) of your sweet girl that should have been. I have won sexpence of Moxon by the _sex_ of the dear gone one.

Yours most truly and hers,

[C.L.]

[This note refers to one of the Hoods' children, which was still-born. It was upon this occasion that Lamb wrote the beautiful lines "On an Infant Dying as soon as Born" (see Vol. IV.).]