Diversions

Abstract

Beyond the immediate household there were other figures of Charles’s childhood: Randal Norris of the Temple, Charles’s godfathers Fielde and Henshaw, and Charles Lovekin. These lived most of their lives in or near London. In Hertfordshire, a county just to the north of (London’s) Middlesex and bordering on it, were Grandmother Mary Field,¹ old Mrs Plumer, and a host of casual acquaintances in the village of Widford and the town of Ware near the great house Blakesware; also Great-Aunt Ann Gladman, Grandmother Field’s sister, at a farm called Mackery End, near Wheathampstead.

Snug firesides—the low-built roof—parlours ten feet by ten—frugal boards, and all the homeliness of home—these were the conditions of my birth—the wholesome soil which I was planted in. ‘Blakesmoor in Hshire’ (Elia, 155)

The toga virilis never sate gracefully on his shoulders. The impressions of infancy had burnt into him, and he resented the impertinence of manhood. These were weaknesses; but as they were, they are a key to explicate some of his writings. Lamb on Lamb, ‘Preface to the Last Essays of Elia’ (Elia, 153)