When _Giles_ attuned his song in rural strains,
He sang of Sap’ston’s groves, her meads, and plains;
Described the various seasons as they roll’d,
Of homely joys and peace domestic told.
The Farmer there, alas! no more bears rule,
And no “joint-tenants” sit in “Duty’s school:”
No happy labourers now with humble fare
His fire-side comforts and instruction share.
No longer master he of those sweet fields,
No more for him the year its bounty yields,
Nor his the hope to see his children round
With decent competence and comfort crown’d.
These scenes and hopes from him for ever flown,
In indigent old age he lives to mourn.
George Bloomfield subjoins, in explanation, on these lines, “My reading
in the Bury paper of the 6th of Dec. 1820, an advertisement of an
assignment for the benefit of creditors of the effects of Mr. Willian
Austin, gave rise to the above. Mr. A. was the young master of Giles,
when Giles was the _Farmer’s Boy_; and the admirers of rural poetry, as
well in the new as the old world, have been made acquainted with the
Austin family by means of the poem of that name. Mr. A. held the farm
near thirty years, and
’twas the same that his grandfather till’d.
He has _ten_ children, some of them very young. He has been by some
accused of imprudence: but the heavy poor-rates, (he paid 36_l._ last
year,) the weight of a numerous family, and the depreciation of the
price of produce, were the principal causes of his fall. He has been a
most indulgent father, a kind master, and a good neighbour.”
Twenty years after writing the lines to the “Psalm-singer, Parish Clerk,
and Sexton” of Sapiston, George again berhymed him. Preceding the
effusion, is the following