d if she had a failing 'twas that she respected her master's
family too much, not reverenced her Maker too little. The lines begin
imperfectly, as I may probably connect 'em if I finish at all: and if I
do, Biggs shall print 'em (in a more economical way than you yours),
for, Sonnets and all, they won't make a thousand lines as I propose
completing 'em, and the substance must be wire-drawn."

When Charles Lloyd joined Coleridge later in the year, and was preparing
his _Poems in Memory of Priscilla Farmer_, Coleridge obtained Lamb's
permission for "The Grandame" to be included with them. The lines were
introduced by Lloyd in these words: "The following beautiful fragment
was written by CHARLES LAMB, of the India-House.--Its subject being the
same with that of my Poems, I was solicitous to have it printed with
them: and I am indebted to a Friend of the Author's for the permission."

The poem differed then very slightly from its present form. When the
book was sent to Lamb he remarked (in December, 1796) on "the odd
coincidence of two young men, in one age, carolling their
grandmothers.... I cannot but smile to see my Granny so gayly deck'd
forth [the book was expensively produced by Lloyd], tho', I think,
whoever altered 'thy' praises to 'her' praises--'thy' honoured memory to
'her' honoured memory [lines 27 and 28], did wrong--they best exprest my
feelings. There is a pensive state of recollection, in which the mind is
disposed to apostrophise the departed objects of its attachment; and,
breaking loose from grammatical precision, changes from the 1st to the
3rd, and from the 3rd to the 1st person, just as the random fancy or
feeling directs."

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