After Blenheim

Their grandfather, an old man, tells them of burned homes, civilian casualties, and rotting corpses, while repeatedly calling it "a famous victory".

The main characters include Old Kaspar (an elderly farmer whose father lived in Blenheim) and his granddaughter Wilhelmine and grandson Peterkin.

Kaspar explains to the children the story of the battle and that the Duke of Marlborough routed the French, although he admits he never understood the reason for the war himself.

[2] The internal repetition of "but 'twas a famous victory" juxtaposed with the initial five lines of each stanza, establish that the narrator does not know why the battle was fought, why thousands died, why his father's cottage was burned.

In a letter to Charles Collins, he wrote of travelling through Woodstock in the summer of 1793, and of refusing to even turn his head to look at the walls of the palace, built by Marlborough, and named for the battle.