Putting in order this morning a mass of pamphlets, which my women-kind
threaten to sweep into the kitchen unless more _tidily_ kept, I came upon a
few poetical tracts by "Thomas Gill, the Blind Man of St. Edmundsbury." Not
having had any previous acquaintance with this poetical moralist, I have
looked over the lot; but beyond the above description of himself upon their
titles, they afford little information regarding their author.
There is, however, proof, in _The Blind Man's Case at London_, 1711, that
Gill was a character in his day. In what he loftily calls "The Argument" to
these eight pages of doggrel, he says:
"The Blind Man of Bury by the Persuasions of his Printer, and some
other supposed Friends, takes his Wife with him to London, with an
Intention to settle there, where they met with so many Inconveniences,
and so great Difficulties and Charges, as soon disgusted them with the
Place."
Hereupon the blind man, finding himself disappointed in his expectations
of, apparently, a larger sphere for his begging operations, opens out upon
the metropolis in a fine round style of abuse in his "Letter to his Good
Friend and Benefactor at Bury."
Desirous that my successor in the O---- library should have the advantage
of all the information I can collect, in regard to the bibliographical
curiosities therein contained, I am induced to avail myself of the medium
your pages afford to inquire whether any of your Suffolk antiquaries can
give me, or point out where I can help myself to, any particulars touching
my new friend with an old face.