Letter 144 - The Letters of Robert Bloomfield

144. Robert Bloomfield to Nathan Drake, 15 November 1804*

(Extract)

Nov 15. 1804

You know well what stereotype printing is and how cautious we ought to be in commiting to press that which is to remain unalterable. The Farmers Boy is now going to be committed in a lasting form at Willson's Office, [1] and I have anxiously endeavoured to get the preface arranged to the wishes of the public, by omitting what had its day and its uses, and retaining what might now be thrown into better form by Mr Lofft with the greatest ease. I can only say that I have faild in the endeavour.

Notes

* Extract in BL Add. MS 30809, f. 46 BACK

[1] The eighth edition of The Farmer's Boy (London: Vernor and Hood, 1805) reveals Bloomfield supervising the apparatus to the text, shortening Lofft's Preface and removing some of Lofft's emendations from earlier editions. According to B. C. Bloomfield, the eighth edition was printed by Swan, as the sixth and seventh were. However, he provides no evidence for this assertion and it seems from this letter that the eighth, like the ninth, tenth and eleventh editions, may have been printed by Wilson. See B. C. Bloomfield, 'The Publication of The Farmer's Boy by Robert Bloomfield', The Library, 6^th series 15.2 (June 1993), 75–94 (82). BACK