Presuming that some of the many readers of "N. & Q." may feel an interest
in the author of _The Farmer's Boy_, whom I knew intimately (a
sickly-looking, retiring, and meditative man), and have often seen trimming
his bright little flower-garden fronting his neat cottage in the City
Road--a pastry-cook's shop, an apple and oyster stall, and part of the
Eagle Tavern ("To what base uses," &c.) now occupy its, to me, hallowed
site,--I send you a few extracts from his sale catalogue, an interesting
and a rare document, as a mournful record of a genius as original and
picturesque, as it was beautiful and holy. His books, prints, drawings (215
lots), and furniture (105 lots) were sold in the humble house in which he
died, at Shefford, Beds, on the 28th and 29th May, 1824. The far greater
number of his books had been presented to him by his friends, viz. the Duke
of Grafton (a very liberal contributor), Dr. Drake, James Montgomery,
Samuel Rogers, Mrs. Barbauld, Richard Cumberland, Sir James Bland Burges,
Capel Lofft, &c. His autograph manuscript of _The Farmer's Boy_, elegantly
bound, was sold for 14l.; of _Rural Tales_, boards, for 4l.; of _Wild
Flowers_, for 3l. 10s.; of _Banks of the Wye_, for 3l.; of _May-day with
the Muses_ (imperfect), for ten shillings; and _Description of the Æolian
Harp_ (he was a maker of Æolian harps), for 15s. His few well-executed
drawings by _himself_ (views of his City Road cottage and garden, &c.)
produced from 5s. to 18s. each. Among his furniture were "A handsome
inkstand, presented to him by the celebrated Dr. Jenner" (in return for his
sweet poem of "Good Tidings"), and the "celebrated oak table, which Mr.
Bloomfield may be said to have rendered immortal by the beautiful and
pathetic poem inscribed to it in his _Wild Flowers_. The first was sold for
6l. 10s., the second for 14l. I am happy in the possession of the _original
miniature_ (an admirable likeness, and finely painted) of Robert
Bloomfield, by Edridge. It is the first and most authentic portrait of him
that was engraved, and prefixed to his poems:
"And long as Nature in her simplest guise,
And virtuous sensibility we prize,
Of well-earn'd fame no poet shall enjoy
A fairer tribute than _The Farmer's Boy_."