Mrs. Mary Field, nee Bruton, Lamb’s maternal grandmother, was housekeeper at Blakesware house, near Widford, the seat of the Plumer family for very many years, during the latter part of her life being left in sole charge, for William Plumer had moved to his other seat, Gilston, a few miles distant (see “Blakesmoor in H——­ shire,” and notes, Vol.  II).  Lamb and his brother and sister visited their grandmother at Blakesware as though in her own house.  Mrs. Field died of cancer in the breast, July 31, 1792, aged seventy-nine, and was buried in Widford churchyard.

Approached from the east the churchyard seems to be anything but on the hilltop, for one descends to it; but it stands on a ridge, and seen from the north, or, as at the old Blakesware house, from the west, it appears to crown an eminence.  The present spire, though slender and tapering, is not that which Lamb used to see.  Mrs. Field’s plain stone, whose legibility was not long since threatened by overhanging branches, has now been saved from danger and may still be read.  It merely records the name “Mary Feild” (a mistake of the stone-cutter) and the bare dates.

This poem was printed by Lamb three times—­in 1796 (in Lloyd’s book), in 1797 (with Coleridge) and in 1818.

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Page 8.  COLERIDGE’S POEMS, 1797.

Coleridge’s Poems on Various Subjects, 1796, went into a second edition in 1797 under the title, Poems by S.T.  Coleridge, Second Edition, to which are now added Poems by Charles Lamb and Charles Lloyd.  Coleridge invented a motto from Groscollius for the title-page, bearing upon this poetical partnership:  “Duplex nobis vinculum, et amicitiae et similium junctarumque Camoenarum; quod utinam neque mors solvat, neque temporis longinquitas!” “Double is the bond which binds us—­friendship, and a kindred taste in poetry.  Would that neither death nor lapse of time could dissolve it!”

Lamb’s contributions were thus referred to by Coleridge in the Preface:  “There were inserted in my former Edition, a few Sonnets of my Friend and old School-fellow, CHARLES LAMB.  He has now communicated to me a complete Collection of all his Poems; quae qui non prorsus amet, illum omnes et Virtutes et Veneres odore.” (Which things, whoever is not unreservedly in love with, is detested by all the Virtues and the Graces.) Lamb’s poems came last in the book, an arrangement insisted upon in a letter from him to Coleridge in November, 1796:—­“Do you publish with Lloyd, or without him?  In either case my little portion may come last; and after the fashion of orders to a country correspondent, I will give directions how I should like to have ’em done.  The title-page to stand thus:—­

POEMS

BY

CHARLES LAMB, OF THE INDIA HOUSE

Under this leaf the following motto, which, for want of room, I put over leaf, I desire you to insert, whether you like it or no.  May not a gentleman choose what arms, mottoes, or armorial bearings the Herald will give him leave, without consulting his republican friend, who might advise none?  May not a publican put up the sign of the Saracen’s Head, even though his undiscerning neighbour should prefer, as more genteel, the Cat and Gridiron?