Evelyn.
Vol. II.—54.
The Cottage Wherein Robert Bloomfield was born,
AT HONINGTON, IN SUFFOLK.
Accompanying the [portrait] and [papers] of George Bloomfield, copied and referred to in the preceding sheet of the Table Book, was a drawing, taken in October last, of Robert Bloomfield’s birth-place. An [engraving] of it is here presented, in order to introduce the following memorandum drawn up by George Bloomfield, and now lying before me in his hand-writing, viz.
“The Poetical Freehold.
“February 4, 1822, was sold at Honington Fox, the old cottage, the natal place of Robert Bloomfield, the Farmer’s Boy.
“My father, a lively little man, precisely five feet high, was a tailor, constantly employed in snapping the cat, that is, he worked for the farmers at their own houses, at a shilling per day and his board. He was a gay knight of the thimble, and as he wore a fashionable coat with a very narrow back, the villagers called him George Narrowback. My mother they called Mrs. Prim. She was a spruce, neat body, and was the village school-dame. Her father found the money, and my father bought the cottage in the year 1754. He died in the year 1766, and, like many other landed men, died intestate. My mother married again. When I came of age she showed me the title-deeds, told me I was heir-at-law, and hoped she should finish her days there. I promised her she should; but time rolled, and at length my wife, after two years of affliction with the dropsy, died, and left me with five infant children, head and ears in debt. To secure the cottage to my mother, I persuaded my brother Robert to buy the title, and give all my brothers and sisters their shares and me mine, and this money paid my debts. The Farmer’s Boy was now the proprietor; but it was a poor freehold, for he did all the repairs, and my mother paid no rent. After my mother’s death, Isaac lived in it upon the same terms,—too poor to pay rent or be turned out. Isaac died, and left nine children. Bob kept the widow in the place, did all the repairs, and she, also, paid nothing. At length the bankruptcies and delays of the London booksellers forced Bob to sell!——