36. Robert Bloomfield to George
Bloomfield, 30 July 1800*
July 30 1800
Dear George
Don't be afraid of the Ghost, nor of the dog, for he is a very
tame one. [1] read
boath if you can find time, but don't fail reading mr L's letter as it contains much
information which I have not time to tell you in detail. Next week I hope to be
squinting about the hills and dales of Northampton, and shall I doubt stand in
need of all my assurance. but I mean to profit by what my brother tradesman and
namesak bob Burns says of his first
interview with Lord Daer.
'Life of Burns,' page 138, says
'My much lamented friend the late basil, Lord Daer, happened to arrive at
Catrrine the same day and by the kindness and frankness of his manners left an
impression on the mind of the poet, which never was effaced' [2]
Burns says
'This wot ye all whom it concerns
I Rhymer Robin, alias Burns
October twenty third,
A ne'er to be forgotten day
So far I sprackled[i] up the brae,
I dinnerd wi a Lord.
But O for Hogaths magic pow'r;
To show Sir Bardy's willyart glow'r; [ii]
And how he stard and stamerd:
When goavan [iii] as if led wi branks, [iv]
And stumpan on his plowman shanks,
He in the parlour hammerd.
I sidling shelterd in a nook,
An at his lordship stealt a look,
Like some portentious omen;
Except good sense and social glee,
An' (what surprized me) modesty,
I marked nought uncommon.
I watchd the symptoms o the Great
The Gentle pride, the lordly state,
The arrogant assuming;
The feint a pride, nae pride had he,
Nor sauce, nor state that I could see
Nair than an honest plowman.
Then from his Lordship I shall learn
Henceforth to meet with unconcern
One rank as well's another;
No honest worthy man need care
To meet with noble youthful
Daer For he but meets a brother.
[i] clamberd
[ii] frightend stare
[iii] walking
[iv] a kind of Bridle
You must excuse my scrabbling, as you see by this job of copying that I have a
good deal of writing [illegible word] but I shall allways find time to say to
George
Health and Happiness
R Bloomfield
Love to wife and all friends, I should have been glad to write now to my Mother, but must stop
perhaps till I can send her my face upon a paper. A large plate is intended
to strike impressions for seperate sale, which Mr Hood says will produce a joint
profit to us. a smaller size will appear first in the 'Mirror,' and
Museum; [3] but hold; I have not been under the painters
hands yet, but I think I ought before I spend a fortnight in the harvest
Sun; otherwise the publick will be apt to fix the place of my birth in
Rosemary Lane, or peticoat Lane, and so by calling me Moses, belie the
preface to my book. [4]
You will certainly forward the packett to Troston directly.
[addendum by George]: pray
preserve the London letters G Bloomfield
Notes
* BL Add. MS 28268, ff.
36–37 BACK
[1] Bloomfield refers to his poems
'The Fakenham Ghost' and 'The Shepherd and his Dog Rover', published in
Rural Tales, pp. 70–77; 111–12. BACK
[2] Bloomfield was reading the first volume of
The Works of Robert Burns, a present from
William Vaughan (see Letter 35). BACK
[3] A portrait of Bloomfield
made by S. Drummond and engraved by W. Ridley appeared in The Monthly Mirror, 10 (October 1800). A variant
of it was published in The European Magazine,
11 (November 1801). It is reproduced as the frontispiece of Robert Bloomfield: Lyric, Class, and the Romantic
Canon, eds. Simon White, John Goodridge and Bridget Keegan (Lewisburg, 2006). BACK
[4] Rosemary and
Petticoat Lanes were the centres of the second-hand clothes trades
mainly carried on by immigrant Jews, stereotypically dark of
complexion. BACK