Accompanying the portrait and papers of George Bloomfield, copied and
referred to in the preceding sheet of the _Table Book_, was a drawing,
taken in October last, of Robert Bloomfield’s birth-place. An engraving
of it is here presented, in order to introduce the following memorandum
drawn up by George Bloomfield, and now lying before me in his
hand-writing, _viz._
“THE POETICAL FREEHOLD.
“_February 4, 1822_, was sold at Honington Fox, the old cottage, the
natal place of Robert Bloomfield, the _Farmer’s Boy_.
“My father, a lively little man, precisely five feet high, was a tailor,
constantly employed in _snapping the cat_, that is, he worked for the
farmers at their own houses, at a shilling per day and his board. He was
a gay knight of the thimble, and as he wore a fashionable coat with a
very narrow back, the villagers called him George Narrowback. My mother
they called Mrs. Prim. She was a spruce, neat body, and was the village
school-dame. Her father found the money, and my father bought the
cottage in the year 1754. He died in the year 1766, and, like many
other landed men, died intestate. My mother married again. When I came
of age she showed me the title-deeds, told me I was heir-at-law, and
hoped she should finish her days there. I promised her she should; but
time rolled, and at length my wife, after two years of affliction with
the dropsy, died, and left me with five infant children, head and ears
in debt. To secure the cottage to my mother, I persuaded my brother
Robert to buy the title, and give all my brothers and sisters their
shares and me mine, and this money paid my debts. The _Farmer’s Boy_ was
now the proprietor; but it was a poor freehold, for he did all the
repairs, and my mother paid no rent. After my mother’s death, Isaac
lived in it upon the same terms,--too poor to pay rent or be turned out.
Isaac died, and left nine children. Bob kept the widow in the place, did
all the repairs, and she, also, paid nothing. At length the bankruptcies
and delays of the London booksellers forced Bob to _sell!_----
“----The late noble duke of Grafton gave my mother a gravestone. This is
all that remains to mark the village as the birth-place of _Giles_, and
all that now remains in it belonging to the Bloomfields.”