AT Christ's Hospital Lamb revealed a characteristic which de-
veloped with the years, a capacity for friendship. Boys whom
he met there became attached to him for life, and one, Cole-
ridge, an intimate friend almost without a break in the relation-
ship. Lamb was especially attractive to young men and only a
few weeks before his death he was sought out by a young Cam-
bridge University student, Fuller Russell, who wrote of an after-
noon spent with Lamb at Enfield and has left a delightful ac-
count of the occasion. Qualities of open-mindedness, tolerance,
humour and sympathy were so strong in his character that a
friendship once formed lasted. Brief sketches of some of his
friends in the following pages are sufficient to show the wide
range and variety of promise and attainment of those who were
proud to call him their friend. It was a great tribute to the idea
of friendship. The relationship was not based on a mere liking
for literature. Tastes were varied. Whenever one came who
was sincere, without pose or affectation, he found a place. No
one who could boast merely of money or position was welcome.
The qualities of Lamb were admirably supplemented by those
of Mary, who often furnished the spark to enkindle the fire of
a continuing friendship. Although Charles Lamb was a man's
man, he was proud of friendship with women, who were wel-
come to the circle not alone because they were congenial to
Mary. Lamb liked them too -- Dorothy Wordsworth, Sarah
Stoddard, afterwards Mrs. William Hazlitt, Fanny Kelly, Mary

-78-