ROBERT BLOOMFIELD.
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."
George Daniel.