have been minutely detailed by his biographers. It ap pears that he was particularly fond of reading aloud the daily newspapers to his fellow-workmen.

This

practice increased his taste for books; and in the course of a short time, he was able to read with facility, and to understand the speeches of Burke, Fox, and North. He also improved his pronunciation by attending the meeting-house of the Rev. Mr. Fawcett, who excelled in pulpit oratory, and he imbibed a taste for public speaking by listening to discussions in a popular debating society, which used to meet at Coachmaker's Hall. The perusal of various articles in the "London Review" first awakened his poetical genius. He wrote a song, which was afterwards printed in the poet's corner; and at a subsequent period, he contributed several other juvenile effusions to that publication. About the same period, accident threw into his hands a copy of Thomson's "Seasons." This delightful work gave him the most exquisite pleasure, and, it is supposed, first inspired him with the ambition of composing a descriptive poem. Some unpleasant disputes among his fellow-workmen led to his returning for two months to the residence of his uncle, Austin, in Suffolk, who received him with great kindness. The scenery of his native country revived his taste for rural pursuits and occupations, and his love for the beauties of the country. At the expiration of a short time, he resumed his business in London, and married a young woman of the name of Church, by whom he had five children. It was after his marriage that Bloomfield composed his "Farmer's Boy," the work which raised him from obscurity, and established his fame as one of the most natural and pleasing of our pastoral writers.

The interesting circumstances attending the publication of the "Farmer's Boy," are minutely narrated by George and by his brother in several letters, written with great simplicity and good sense. The limits of this brief notice will not admit of their insertion. We take the following further details from a biographical sketch of the poet in the "Penny Cyclopedia," which contains an account of the gratifying reception given to Bloomfield's

various works, and describes the closing incidents of his honourable career in life:- - "The manuscript of the 'Farmer's Boy,' after being offered to, and refused by, several London publishers, was printed under the patronage of C. Lofft, Esq., in 1800; and the admiration it produced was so general, that within three years after its publication more than 26,000 copies were sold. The appearance of such refinement of taste and sentiment in the person of an indigent artisan elicited general praise.

"The fame of Bloomfield was increased by the subsequent publication of Rural Tales, Ballads, and Songs,' "Good Tidings, or News from the Farm,' Wild Flowers,' and 'Banks of the Wye.' He was kindly noticed by the Duke of Grafton, by whom he was appointed to a situa tion in the Seal Office; but suffering from constitutional ill health, he returned to his trade of ladies' shoemaker, to which, being an amateur in music, he added the employment of making Æolian harps. A pension of a shilling a day was still allowed him by the Duke; yet, having now, besides a wife and children, undertaken to support several other members of his family, he became involved in difficulties; and, being habitually in bad health, he retired to Shefford, in Bedfordshire, where, in 1816, a subscription, headed by the Duke of Norfolk and other noblemen, was instituted by the friendship of Sir Egerton Brydges, for the relief of his embarrassments. Great anxiety of mind, occasioned by accumulated mis-> fortunes and losses, with violent incessant headaches, a morbid nervous irritability, and loss of memory, reduced› him at last to a condition little short of insanity. He died at Shefford, August 19, 1823, at the age of fifty-. seven, leaving a widow and four children, and debts to the amount of £200, which sum was raised by subscription among his benevolent friends and admirers. In the following year, at the sale of his MSS., that of the Farmer's Boy,' in his own handwriting, was sold for £14.

"The works of Bloomfield have been published in two vols. 12mo. 'Hazlewood Hall,' which appeared a short time before his death, has little merit in comparison with his earlier productions. His 'Remains,' consisting of

Songs, Anecdotes, Remarks on Æolian Harps, Tour on the Wye, &c., were edited by J. Weston, Esq., in 1824. The Farmer's Boy,'' Wild Flowers,' with several of the 'Ballads and Tales,' are his best poems; and many critics, such as James Montgomery, Dr. Nathan Drake, and Sir Egerton Brydges, have expressed the highest admiration of their chaste and unaffected beauties."

It is a circumstance peculiarly gratifying, that in giving an outline of this modest and amiable author's life, there are no faults to extenuate, no vices to condemn. His conduct was without reproach. In the relations of husband, father, and friend, he was faithful, affectionate, and sincere. Upon this subject we quote the observations of S. C. Hall, in his "Book of Gems:"" The character of Bloomfield is almost without spot or blemish. Celebrity did not make him arrogant, nor did want lead him into meanness. When reputation failed to procure him bread, he returned to his trade, and might have found the awl more profitable than the lyre, if his health, always precarious, had not sunk during the trial. His brother describes his person :'He is of a slender make, of about five feet four inches high; very dark complexion.' He finishes the picture by a powerful touch:-'I never knew his fellow for mildness of temper and goodness of disposition.' Those who read the poetry of Robert Bloomfield will be satisfied of the accuracy of the portrait."

The friendly criticism of Hazlitt on Bloomfield's poetical merits and defects is candid and indulgent. He observes-" As a painter of simple natural scenery, and of the still life of the country, few writers have more undeniable and unassuming pretensions than the ingenious and self-taught poet, Robert Bloomfield. Among the sketches of this sort I would mention, as equally distinguished for delicacy, faithfulness, and naïvete, his description of lambs racing, of the pigs going out an acorning, of the boy sent to feed his sheep before the break of day in winter; and I might add the innocentlytold story of the poor bird-boy, who in vain through the live-long day expects his promised companion at his hut to share his feast of roasted sloes with him, as an

example of that humble pathos in which this author excels.

The fault indeed of his genius is that it is too humble. His muse has something not only rustic, but menial in her aspect. He seems afraid of elevating nature, lest she should be ashamed of him. Bloomfield very beautifully describes the lambs in spring-time as racing round the hillocks of green turf. Thomson, in describing the same image, makes the mound of earth the remains of an old Roman encampment. Bloomfield never gets beyond his own experience, and that is somewhat confined. He gives the simple appearance of nature, but he gives it naked, shivering, and unclothed with the drapery of a moral imagination. His poetry has much the effect of the first approach of spring, while yet the year is unconfirmed, where a few tender buds venture forth here and there, but are chilled by the early frost and nipping breath of poverty."

After the death of Bloomfield, which was universally regretted by the admirers of natural genius, several writers of high literary reputation published poetical tributes to his memory. One of great merit, and written under the influence of generous feelings, was from the pen of Bernard Barton, the Quaker poet. We transcribe the concluding verses :

ara Suisse Tis now too late! the scene is clos'd, Thy conflicts borne, thy trials o'er: And in the peaceful grave repos'd

That frame which pain shall rack no more.

Peace to the bard whose artless store

Was spread for nature's humblest child;
Whose song, well meet for peasant lore,
Was lowly, simple, undefil'd.

Yet long may guileless hearts preserve
The memory of thy song and thee-
While nature's healthful feelings nerve
The arm of labour toiling free;
While Suffolk peasantry may be

Such as thy sweetest tales make known,
By cottage-hearth, by green-wood tree,

Be Bloomfield called with pride their own!

HENRY KIRKE WHITE.

BORN 1785; DIED, 1806.

Unhappy White! while life was in its spring,
And thy young muse just waved her joyous wing;
The spoiler came; and all thy promise fair
Has sought the grave, to sleep for ever there.
Oh! what a noble heart was here undone,
When science self-destroyed her favourite son!
Yes! she too much indulged thy fond pursuit,
She sowed the seeds, but death has reap'd the fruit.
'Twas thine own genius gave the final blow,
And help'd to plant the wound that laid thee low.
So the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
View'd his own feather on the fatal dart,
And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart.
Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel,
He nursed the pinion which impell'd the steel,
While the same plumage that had warm'd his nest
Drank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast.-Byron.

AMONG the numerous examples of precocious genius, and of ardour in the pursuit of knowledge, recorded in literary biography, it would be difficult to select one more calculated to excite the liveliest interest, and the deepest sympathy, than that of the amiable and lamented Henry Kirke White. At an important period of his career, he met with a generous patron and a disinterested friend in the late Robert Southey. Not long after his untimely death, at the age of twenty-one, his memory was indebted to the same eminent writer for an account of his "Life and Remains," which is one of the most affectionate tributes ever offered by a brother poet at the shrine of departed worth :- "It is now my fortune," says that popular biographer, "to lay before the world some ccount of one whose early death is not less to be