Letter 27 - The Letters of Robert Bloomfield

27. George Bloomfield to Capel Lofft, 27 March 1800* 


(Extract)


I have him in my mind's eye a little Boy; not bigger than Boys generally are at twelve years old. When I met him and his Mother at the Inn, [1]  he strutted before us, dress'd just as he came from keeping Sheep, Hogs, &c.... his shoes fill'd full of stumps in the heels. He looking about him, slip'd up... his nails were unus'd to a flat pavement. I remember viewing him as he scamper'd up... how small he was. Little thought, that little fatherless Boy would be one day known and esteem'd by the most learned, the most respected, the wisest and the best men of the Kingdom.

Notes

* Quoted in The Farmer's Boy, 2nd ed. (London, 1800), pp. xxiii–xxiv BACK

[1] Lofft adds a footnote: 'In Bishopsgate-street.' BACK


Bloomfield Letters / Letter 27