THOMAS GILL, THE BLIND MAN OF ST. EDMUNDSBURY.
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.
J. O.