The Illustrated London News, 14 February 1891
Charles Lamb's
Adopted
Daughter
One of the few remaining links that united the present with
the literary
past of the earlier years of our century has been severed by
the death of
the widow of the "poets" publisher, Edward Moxon, which occurred at
Brighton on February 2.
Mrs Moxon had attained the age of eighty-two years and
was the Emma Isola who was the "nut brown maid" the "girl of
gold" the
adopted daughter of Charles and Mary Lamb, of whom the gentle
hearted
author of the "Essays of Elia" spoke with such warm affection
in various of
his charming letters. Writing to his friend Proctor (Barry
Cornwall) in
January 1829,
Lamb says
incidentally
"I have another favour to beg which is
the beggarliest of beggings - a few lines of verse for a
lady's album (six
will be enough) . M Barney will tell you who she is I want
'em for. A
girl of gold - six lines - make 'em eight - signed Barry C-.
They need
not be very good as I chiefly want 'em as a foil to mine. But
I shall be
seriously obliged by any refuse scrap. We are in the last
ages of the
world, when St Paul prophesied that women should be
"headstrong", lovers of
their own wills, having albums."
It was for Miss Isola that Lamb wanted
the lines.
Emma Isola was Italian by extraction. In the latter years of
the last
century there lived at
Cambridge
as a Professor Languages, an Italian
gentleman.
Agostino
Isola, who
had been compelled to leave Milan, it was
said, because a prohibited English book had been found on his
table.
Gray, the poet, William Pitt , and, nearly at the end of his
life,
Wordsworth
were numbered among Agostino Isola's pupils. His son,
Charles
Isola, took a degree at Emmanuel College, and was
afterwards
chosen one of
the "Esquire bedells" of the University: a shy, retiring man,
described as
"ready to undertake any duty that did not include dining with
a large
party".
Mr Charles Isola's daughter Emma was born in 1809. She was early
left an orphan,
and as a
child attracted the notice, and won the regard of
Lamb, who, with his sister, sometimes made a
holiday
visit to Cambridge,
and saw the little girl at his friend
Mr Ayrton's, at whose house he
played
many an evening rubber.
Both Charles and Mary Lamb took a great fancy to
the child who, for a series
of
years became accustomed to pass her holidays
with them, and was
afterwards
domiciled in their house almost as a
daughter. She used to accompany Lamb in his rambles about
Enfield, and he
taught her Latin.
She was afterwards
for a time in the family of a
clergyman and his wife as a governess. Writing to
Bernard
Barton, Lamb
excuses himself for having "condescended to acrostics" by
explaining that
they were written
"at the request of the lady where our Emma is, to whom I
paid a visit in April to bring home Emma for a change of air
after a severe
illness, in which she has been treated like a daughter by the
good parson
and his whole family."
At Lamb's, Miss Isola
made the
acquaintance
of
Mr Edward
Moxon. -
"He is
the young
poet of
Christmas." writes
Lamb to Barton, "whom the author of
the "Pleasures of Memory" has
set up
in the bookvending business with a
volunteered loan of £500. Such munificence is rare to
an almost
stranger, but
Rogers,
I am told, has done many good-natured things of this
kind."
To Mr Moxon, Miss Isola was married on
July 30, 1833.
For some years the
publishing business flourished, and the works of various poets
- Rogers and
Tennyson among the number, - were issued by the house. But
misfortunes
came at last , and the house became involved in difficulties,
in the midst
of which,
Mr Moxon
died. The result of the complications was,
however, better than
might have
been expected. Messrs Ward and Lock
came forward
with an offer to pay all
the creditors to the estate fifteen shillings in the pound.
They fought in
the Law Courts the battle of the family against
the manager, who
set up
extensive claims to copyrights &c, and taking over the
property, paid to
Mrs Moxon a large sum, and, moreover, agreed to pay that lady
an annuity of
£250 , and a further sum to the family on her death.
This was in
1877,
and for fourteen years the deceased lady enjoyed the provision
thus made
for her. How great a position she occupied in the affections
and home
thoughts of Elia and his sister is abundantly testified in
the
correspondence of the immortal "Carolus Agnus" by whom her
husband also was
regarded as a dear and valued friend.
Mrs Moxon leaves one son, Mr Arthur Moxon, and five daughters.
She was
buried on Feb 5 in the Brighton Cemetery,