Information
We do not know exactly how many times Charles Lamb came to Margate but it is certain that it was his first visit he enjoyed most. He had not been to the seaside before and his artless enjoyment of the experience can be detected in this simple comment from a letter to a friend in September 1801: ‘Your letter has found me at Margate, where I am come with Mary to drink sea water and pick up shells.’ Twenty years later, his only reaction was a peevish complaint : ‘I am here at Margate, spoiling my holydays with a review I have undertaken for a friend …’. Another friend, however, noted Lamb’s excitement over a large whale which had been washed ashore. It is in the ‘Last Essays of Elia’, the second collection of essays which he regularly contributed to the ‘London Magazine’ between 1820 and 1823, that he described the vivid impression made on him all those years ago by Margate, in comparison to which any similar resort fell far short. It seems to have been the journey to Margate, made by hoy (a sailing packet conveying goods and passengers quite cheaply), which he found the most memorable.
Quotations
… my cousin contrives to wheedle me once in three or four seasons to a watering place. … We have been dull at Worthing one summer, duller at Brighton another, dullest at Eastbourn, a third, and are at this moment doing dreary penance at – Hastings!- and all because we were happy many years ago at Margate. … Can I forget thee, thou old Margate Hoy, with thy weather -beaten, sun-burnt captain, and his rough accommodations - ill-exchanged for the foppery and fresh-water niceness of the modern steam packet ? To the winds and waves thou committedst thy goodly freightage… . With the gales of heaven thou wentest swimmingly ; or, when it was their pleasure, stoodest still with sailor-like patience. Thy course was natural, not forced, as in a hot-bed ; nor didst thou go poisoning the breath of ocean with sulphureous smoke …
All this time sat upon the edge of the deck … a lad, apparently very poor, very infirm, and very patient. … we learned that he was going to Margate, with the hope of being admitted into the Infirmary there for sea-bathing. His disease was a scrofula, which appeared to have eaten all over him.
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| Margate | We do not know exactly how many times Charles Lamb came to Margate but it is certain that it was his first visit he enjoyed most... |
