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best manner he was able, to secure the comfort and future provision of the unprotected lad. George was, at that time, according to his own account, a journeyman, but worked in company with several other persons of the same trade, in a garret which the party rented at No. 7, Pitcher'scourt, Bell-alley, Coleman-street.

Robert, on being made one of the company, was employed by them in running for whatever they wanted, and was rewarded by the party obliged, by being helped over some difficulty in the mystery of shoe-making. But the employment best adapted to his taste was the reading of the newspaper, which was lent them, when a day old, from the public-house, and from the perusal of which he seems first to have gained his knowledge of words and phrases. And in this again the thoughtful kindness of his brother was of considerable use to him. He frequently met,' says George, with words that he was unacquainted with of this he often complained. I one day happened at a book-stall to see a small dictionary, which had been very ill-used. I bought it for him for four-pence. By the help of this he in a little time could read and comprehend the long and beautiful speeches of Burke, Fox, or North., Having thus acquired some knowledge of the power of language, he learnt its proper pronunciation from attending the lectures of Mr. Fawcet, one of the most popular preachers of the time; and from whom also, it is to be hoped, he acquired the infinitely greater advantage of knowing the nature and value of religion.

These, however, were not the only sources of information which Robert enjoyed. By the good sense of his brother and the other workmen, the History of England, the British Traveller, and a work on Geography, were taken in in numbers,

and these he was employed to read while the others were occupied with their work. But this was not all. George, who appears to have been a better informed man than persons of his situation usually are, subscribed for the London Magazine, a small portion of which was, as is usual, devoted to short critiques of new publications. Robert was more interested by these than by any other part of the contents, except the verses which he found in Poet's Corner, and to which he always turned, it is said, with eager curiosity.

The living seed which nature sows in either the heart or the mind, wants little warmth to ripen it but that which she herself gives; and were it not that passion or misfortune so often blights it in its first budding into beauty, the human universe would present a glorious harvest, which had only required the dews of heaven to bring forth fifty and a hundred-fold. Poor Robert, with no other advantages than those we have mentioned, went on cultivating his mind as well as he was able till he was about seventeen, when he made his first attempt as a poet, and was so far encouraged as to find his verses accepted by the editor of one of the public journals. We copy this early attempt of the Farmer's Boy. The verses, though very simple, were, for a lad in his situation, well worthy the attention they received.

THE

MILK MAID;

OR, THE FIRST OF MAY.

HAIL, MAY! lovely May! how replenish'd my pails! The young Dawn overspreads the East streak'd

with gold!

My glad heart beats time to the laugh of the vales, And Colin's voice rings through the woods from

the fold.

The wood to the mountain submissively bends,

Whose blue misty summits first glow with the sun i See thence a gay train by the wild rill descends

To join the glad sports :-hark! the tumult 's begun. Be cloudless, ye skies!-Be my Colin but there,

Not the dew-spangled bents on the wide level dale Nor morning's first blush, can more lovely appear Than his looks, since my wishes I could not conceal. Swift down the mad dance, while blest health prompts

to move,

We'll count joys to come, and exchange vows of

truth;

And haply when age cools the transports of love, Decry, like good folks, the vain pleasures of youth. Our young poet now so rapidly advanced in his pursuit of knowledge, that, his brother says, he and his companions began to receive instructions from him; but he shortly after removed to another lodging, influenced solely by the kind desire of saving Robert from the distress he felt at the sufferings of one of the men who had fits.

About the year 1784, Robert, having never been apprenticed, became an object of persecution to the company of journeymen shoemakers, who threatened his master and his brother with a prosecution, if he was suffered to work any longer without indentures. In consequence of this circumstance he returned to the country for a short time, and was affectionately received by his old master, Mr. Austin, with whom he remained two months, when a Mr. Dudbridge offered to take him as an apprentice, and he came back to London. Here he continued working at his business and relieving his industry by a variety of pursuits suited to his gentle disposition; and among others, we find him devoting a part of his leisure to music, and becoming, it is said, a good player on the violin.

George had now left him to himself, and in the narrative of the former we find the following passage, referring to this period of his brother's life: As my brother Nat had married a Woolwich woman, it happened that Robert took a fancy to Mary-Anne Church, a comely young woman of that town, whose father is a boat-builder in the government-yard there. He married, Dec. 12, 1790. Soon after he married, Robert told me in a letter, that he had sold his fiddle, and got a wife." Like most poor men he got a wife first, and had to get household stuff afterwards. It took him some years to get out of ready-furnished lodgings. At length by hard working he acquired a bed of his own, and hired the room up one pair of stairs, at 14, Bell-alley, Coleman-street. The landlord kindly gave him leave to sit and work in the light garret, two pair of stairs higher.'-' In this garret,' continues he, amid six or seven other workmen, his active mind employed itself in composing the Farmer's Boy.'

When this beautiful little poem was completed, it was shewn, it appears, to several persons for their opinion; but owing to some circumstance or the other, most probably to prejudice, it was passed by with neglect, till Mr. Capel Lofft had the good taste and the liberality to discover and acknowledge its merits. The part which that gentleman took in the fortunes of Bloomfield is one of the most honourable instances of patronage which occurs in literary history, and will ever be a crown of laurel on his memory.

The extraordinary success of the Farmer's Boy' is well known. In a short time several large impressions had been sold off, and the surprised and gratified writer found himself suddenly called into the notoriety of an admired author. 'Rural Tales,' and Wild Flowers,' shortly fol

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lowed his first publication, and were received with equal favour. In 1821, having made a visit with some friends to the beautiful scenery of Wales, he produced the Banks of the Wye,' which was published the following year. His last production was' Hazlewood Hall, a rural drama, in three acts, and which was only finished the same year in which he died.

It is an afflicting remembrance, that the reputation and comparative affluence which poor Bloomfield had obtained, were of little avail in smoothing the downward path of his existence. Towards the latter years of his life, his too great liberality to his relatives, combined with the afflictions of sickness, which prevented his working, involved him in many difficulties, and exhausted the resources with which the success of his publications had supplied him. But what he lost in comfort by his amiable conduct to his friends, he has gained in the affection with which every benevolent heart reverences his memory, and adds to their admiration of his genius their sympathy with his good and gentle feelings.

After having suffered many trials and difficulties, he left London and removed into Bedfordshire, where he died, August 19, 1823, at the age of fifty-seven, leaving behind him a name rendered dear to the lovers of poetry, by the simple but deep humanity with which both late and early it was sanctified

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