Sir,--A gentleman desires me to write to you, as editor of the _Table
Book_, it being his wish that a view which he sent of the little cottage
at Honington should appear in that very curious work. The birth-place of
Robert Bloomfield I think may excite the interest of some of your
readers; but, sir, if they find out that you correspond with a
superannuated _cold water poet_, your work will smell of poverty.
Lord Byron took pains to flog two of my brothers, as poachers on the
preserves of the qualified proprietors of literature. It is thought, if
he had not been wroth with the Edinburgh Reviewers, these poor poachers
might have escaped; they, like me, had neither birth nor education to
entitle them to a qualification.
If, sir, you ever saw an old wall blown down, or, as we have it here in
the country, if the wall “_fall of its own accord_,” you may have
observed that the first thing the workmen do, is to pick out the whole
bricks into one heap, the bats into another, and the rubbish into a
third. Thus, sir, if in what falls from me to you, you can find any
whole bricks, or even bats, that may be placed in your work, pick them
out; but I much fear all will be but rubbish unfit for your purpose.
So much has been said, in the books published by my brothers, of “the
little tailor’s four little sons,” who once resided in the old cottage,
that I cannot add much that is new, and perhaps the little I have to
relate will be uninteresting. But I think the great and truly good man,
the late duke of Grafton, ought to have been more particularly
mentioned. Surely, after near thirty years, the good sense and
benevolence of that real _noble_man may be mentioned. When in my
boyhood, he held the highest office in the state that a subject can
fill, and like all that attain such preeminence, had his enemies; yet
the more Junius and others railed at him, the more I revered him. He was
our “Lord of the Manor,” and as I knew well his private character, I had
no doubt but he was “all of a piece.” I have on foot joined the
fox-chase, and followed the duke many an hour, and witnessed his
endearing condescension to all who could run and shout. When Robert
became known as the _Farmer’s Boy_, the duke earnestly cautioned him on
no account to change his habits of _living_, but at the same time
encouraged him in his habits of _reading_, and kindly gave him a
gratuity of a shilling a day, to enable him to employ more time in
reading than heretofore. This gratuity was always paid while the duke
lived, and was continued by the present duke till Robert’s death.
Could poor Robert have kept his children in their old habits of
_living_, he might have preserved some of the profits arising from his
works, but he loved his children too tenderly to be a niggard; and,
besides, he received his profits at a time when bread was six or seven
shillings per stone: no wonder that with a sickly family to support, he
was embarrassed.
The duke likewise strongly advised him not to write _too much_, but keep
the ground he had gained, &c. As hereditary sealer of the writs in the
Court of King’s Bench, the duke gave Robert the situation of under
sealer, but his health grew so bad he was obliged to give it up; he held
it several months, however, and doubtless many a poor fellow went to
coop under Robert’s seal. It was peculiarly unfortunate he could not
keep his place, for I think Mr. Allen, the master-sealer, did not live
above two years, and it is more than probable the duke would have made
Robert master-sealer, and then he would have had sufficient income. The
duke’s condescension and kindness to my mother was very great, he
learned her real character, and called on her at her own cottage, and
freely talked of gone-by times, (her father was an old tenant to the
duke.) He delicately left a half guinea at Mr. Roper’s, a gentleman
farmer, to be given to her after his departure, and when he heard of her
death he ordered a handsome gravestone to be placed over her, at his
expense, and requested the Rev. Mr. Fellowes to write an inscription. It
is thus engraven:--