[138] See Life of Samuel Bradburn, President of the Wesleyan Conference.
[139] See a book of unusual interest, “Lives of the Early Methodist Preachers,” ed. by Rev. I. Jackson. Wesleyan Book-Room, London, 3 vols. 1865.
[140] “Life of Wesley,” vol. iii. p. 108. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1870.
[141] Toplady wrote the fine hymn “Rock of Ages,” etc.
[142] “Helmsley” has been set down to Olivers; but Mr. Benham says it was composed by Martin Madan, Cowper’s uncle, author of “Thelyphthora.” See Cowper’s “Poems,” Globe Ed., Intro., p. 34.
[143] “Memoirs of the late Thomas Holcroft, written by Himself, and Continued to the Time of his Death from his Diary,” by W. Hazlitt. The Traveller’s Library, vol. xvii. 1856.
[144] It may be thought by some readers that Bloomfield’s brothers, George and Nathaniel, ought to have a place in our list of illustrious shoemakers. George, in his correspondence with Mr. Capel Lofft, Robert’s patron, showed himself a man of good sense and a fair writer. See preface to Bloomfield’s Poems. But Nathaniel, the author of a little volume of poems, edited by Capel Lofft, 1803, entitled, “An Essay on War,“ in blank verse, and ”Honington Green, a Ballad,” was not a shoemaker. He was a tailor, though not a few writers have made Byron’s mistake of classing him with “ye tuneful cobblers.”
[145] Blacket’s “Remains,” preface, vol. i. pp. 62, 63. London, 1811.
[146] Blacket’s “Remains,” preface, vol. i. pp. 2-7.
[147] Editor of Blacket’s “Remains,” Letters, pp. 9, 10.