Blomidon

“ Yet all the time, through all the seasons, while field and flood, river and mountain, sea and forest, are thus changing their aspect, there hangs over all an atmosphere which brings changes more wonderful than these. The fog is forever struggling for an entrance here. The air in an instant may bring forth its hidden watery vapors. High over Blomidon the mist banks are piled, and roll and writhe at the blast of the winds from the sea. ”

“ Specimens of Blomefield's errors and omissions will be found at p. 318 of the third volume of the ‘East Anglian.’ His book, however, is an enduring monument of hard disinterested work, for it was wholly a labour of love, and as far as the facts chronicled it is usually very trustworthy. It is wonderful indeed how often the searchers among manuscripts of to-day come across Blomefield's private mark or his beautifully legible handwriting on charters or rolls. A very good point in his character was the unselfish readiness with which he imparted his knowledge to others working in the same field. ”

“ It seemeth strange to see such strangers here, Yet not so strange but strangers know you well, Your vertuous thoughts to gods do plain appear, Your acts on earth bewray how you excel: You cannot die, love here hath made your lease, Which gods have sent, and God saith shall not cease.
Vertuous desire desired me to sing, No subjects suit, tho' suitors they were all, Apollo's gilts are subject to no king, Rare are thy gifts that did Apollo call, Then still rejoice sith god and man say so, This is my gift, thou never shalt have woe. ”

“ Master Bilney, the people are persuaded that we are the causes of your death, and that we have procured the same, and thereupon it is like they will withdraw their charitable alms from us all, except you declare your charity towards us, and discharge us of the matter. Whereupon he spake with a loud voice to the people and said, I pray you good people be never the worse to these men for my sake, as though they should be the authors of my death. It is not they. ”

“ I give thee here this small and slender wand, To shew thou shalt in quiet rule this land.
Then Juno spake, whose gift was a purse curiously wrought.
Is Juno rich? no sure she is not so, She wants that wealth that is not wanting here, Thy goods get friends, my wealth wins many a foe, My riches rust, but thine shine passing clear.
Thou art beloved of subjects far and nigh, Which is such wealth as money cannot buy.
Farewell, fair Queen, I cannot give thee ought, Nor take away thy good that is so bound: Thou canst not give that I so long have sought, Ne can I hold the riches thou hast found. ”

“ The common people beholding the manner thereof, and greedy to gaze on that should be done, followed as their fansies did lead them: so that when the devisor and his retinue came into the open field, there was as great a train and prease about the shew, as came with the court at that instant, which graced much the matter, and gave it some expected hope of good success.
First, there was a feigned devise, that Venus and Cupid were thrust out of heaven, and walking on the earth met a philosopher, who demanded, from whence they came? ”

“ On the 19th of August, 1823, Robert Bloomfield died at Shefford, in Bedfordshire, aged 57. He was born at Honington, near Bury, in Suffolk, where he received instruction in reading and writing at a common school, and became a “Farmer’s boy;” which occupation he has related with simplicity and beauty in a poem under that title. He wrote that production when a journeyman shoemaker: under the auspices of the late Mr. Capel Llofft it was ushered into the world; and Bloomfield, unhappily for himself, subsequently experienced the insufficient and withering patronage of ostentatious greatness. ”

“ For his extreme piety Caistor received the cognomen of 'good,' and Blomefield adds that he was a constant preacher of God's word and a great supporter of Wycliffite doctrines in the reign of Henry V. While living, the common people regarded him as a prophet, and after his death miracles were reported to have been wrought at his tomb, which became the object of local pilgrimage, to the great annoyance of the orthodox authorities. ”

“ Such a Lord is our great God, that can frame all things to the best, and such a sovereign Lady we have, that can make the crooked paths streight where she cometh, and draw the hearts of the people after her wheresoever she travelleth. So from Master Revet's her Highness came to my Lord North's, who was no whit behind any of the best for a frank house, a noble heart, and weil ordered entertainment. And there was an oration made by a gentleman of Cambridge, with a stately and a fair cup presented from the University, all the ambassadors of France beholding the same. ”

“ Robert remained in London, and on 12 Dec. 1790 wrote to his brother that he ‘had sold his fiddle and got a wife.’ The young couple lived in the most squalid poverty: it took them several years to acquire a bed of their own. In a garret where five or six others were at work, Bloomfield composed his ‘Farmer’s Boy.’ He was accustomed to keep fifty or a hundred lines in his head until he could find an opportunity of putting them on paper. ”

“ However, be his character as it will, it is plain his good works were many; and all agree, that in his riper years he much bewailed his youthful follies, and blotted out their guilt, by the multitude of his future virtues; for having been a patron of simony, he became a particular enemy to it, always professing with St. Jerom, that the errours we commit when we are young, we must amend when we are old. So that he bears the character of a true penitent, and indeed the preamble of his foundation charter makes it sufficiently appear to be so. ”

“ Piddock's charge, which were not among the other papers, though the following lines are there, and were made by some Royalist, in praise of them:
"Hail, loyal poet, thy inspired breast Doth keep the rhyme, though thou forget'st the rest, Good small drink verses truly, and no doubt, They'd better been, but that the strong was out; The zeal I like, thou poet may'st commence, For though there's want of feet, there's none of sense, The things he writes are true, the verses false, The author's loyal, that's enough applause." ”

“ Blomefleld, Francis, a clergyman, born at Norfolk; author of "Topographical History of the County of Norfolk" (1705-1751) .
Blomfield, bishop of London, born at Bury St. Edmunds; Greek scholar; active in the Church extension of his diocese (1785-1857) .
Blondel, a troubadour of the 12th century; a favourite of Richard Coeur de Lion, who, it is said, discovered the place of Richard's imprisonment in Austria by singing the first part of a love-song which Richard and he had composed together, and by the voice of Richard in responding to the strain. ”

“ At every leaf that rustles in the breeze
Starting, he grasps his sword; and every nerve
Is ready strained for combat or for flight.’
“If Mr. Bloomfield had written nothing besides the Elegy on the Enclosure of Honnington Green, he would have had a right to be considered as a poet of no mean excellence. There is a sweet and tender melancholy pervading the elegiac ballad efforts of Mr. Bloomfield, which has the most indescribable effects on the heart. ”

“ I have seen an ancient deed of this Walter, in French, by which, as Lord of Diss, he granted a messuage and 8 acres of land to one William Moundry; it was dated at Henham 40 E. III. to which his seal was fastened, being his paternal coat, and an estoil between two plumes for his crest. (circumscribed, Sigillum Walteri Filtj-Walteri.) His first wife was Eleanor, by whom he had no issue; his second, as Mr. Dugdale tells us, was Philippa, daughter and coheir to John de Mohun Lord of Dunster, and widow of Edward Duke of York; she survived him. But Le Neve, in his Collections, differs in this point ”

“ In 1822 he became archdeacon of Colchester, and in 1824 was appointed to the see of Chester; as bishop of Cnester he did much to raise the scale of clerical qualifications. In 1828 Blomfield was translated to the bishopric of London, the duties of which he performed with immense energy, and, on the whole, with sound common sense and moderation. He had many opportunities for displaying his remarkable powers as a man of business when member of the poor law board and of the ecclesiastical commission (1836) . ”

“ Bilney heard me at that time, and perceaved I was zelous without knowledge, and came to me afterwards in my study, and desired me for God's sake to hear his confession. I dyd so, (and to say the trueth) by his confession, I learned more than afore in many yeres: so that from that time forward, I began to smell the word of God, and forsake the school doctors, and such fooleries, &c.' By all which it appears, how vehemently this good man was pearced with sorrow and remorse for his abjuration, for above a year together. ”

“ Blomfield's in March, 1815. I staid there till near the time of my first going to Cambridge, which was in the summer of 1817. Simplicity and purity of mind, alas! are not regained with the readiness with which they are lost: the falling into bad company and consenting to it will utterly ruin all innocence. The removal of occasions may prevent the growth of evil habits and the farther increase of corruption; but this alone will not restore that blessed ignorance of evil which was no longer mine. My residence with Blomfield was, however, the means to me of great good. ”

“ I doubt much if the women can come. The Mignonne is back, she has passed up the river in this accursed fog."
"Not come!" Bufton exclaimed. "Not come. What, then, is to be done?"
"Hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst. How can they come, if Sir Geoffrey is back? They will know the letter was a lie, a concoction."
"What to do? What to do now?" almost whined Bufton, his hand to chin.
"There is but one thing to do! They might have got away before he moored--have been on their road. The frigate could not be seen till she was close to her anchorage. ”

“ Blomfield, who was a rowing man when young, and had occupied the bow seat in his college eight, when head of the river, was fond in middle life of taking recreation in acting, in which his fine voice, expressive clean-shaved face, and real dramatic talent made him unusually successful. ”

“ Algar, a freeman of Herald's held all Wineferthinc as one manor in the Confessor's time, when it contained 6 carucates of land, two in demean, and four among the tenants: at the survey it was in the Conqueror's own hands, and then extended into Burston, Shimpling, Titshall, and Shelfhanger; it was valued in the first survey at 40s. and by the Conqueror at 8l. 3s. 4d. with the freemen; he committed it to Godric's care, who answered 7l. and no more. It was two miles long, and one mile broad, and paid 9d. geld. ”

“ Upon which, the Bishop seeing the forwardness of the people, and being pushed on by the Pope, after a strong opposition of most of the nobles, obtained a fifteenth to be granted him for this service by the commons, upon his proffering in open parliament to raise 3000 men at arms, and 3000 archers, well mounted, to relieve Gaunt, reduce Flanders, and make war against the King's enemies in France, which was so approved of, that they agreed to it, and confirmed to him the tax of the fifteenth on the laity ”

“ Bloomfield was a man of a simple affectionate nature, but he was sadly wanting in independence and manliness. His letters preserved in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 28265-68) are singularly uninteresting, and afford convincing proof that he had, as Lamb said, a ‘poor mind.’ Selections from his correspondence were edited in 1870 by W. H. Hart. George Bloomfield, the elder brother, who also wrote verses, died—as he had lived—in wretched squalor, on 29 Jun. ”

“ Blomefield was an adept in alchemy, a collector of old and curious books, and the author of: 1. ‘Blomfylds Quintaessens, or the Regiment of Life,’ manuscript in the Cambridge University Library, Dd. 3, 83, art. 6. Dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, and said to be hardly the production of a sane mind. 2. ‘Blomefield’s Blossoms, or the Campe of Philosophy.' Printed in Elias Ashmole's ‘Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum,’ 305-93. Tanner and Warton confound him with Wi11iam Blomefield, alias Rattlesden, sometime monk of Bury, and afterwards vicar of St. ”

“ Our grace or foile doth in your judgement lye, If you mislike, our griefs do grow on heap: If for small things we do great favour find, Great is the joy that Norwich feels this day: If well we weigh'd the greatness of your mind, Few words would serve, we had but small to say.
But knowing that your goodness takes things well, That well are meant, we boldly did proceed: And so, good Queen, both welcome and farewell, Thy own we are, in heart, in word, in deed.
The boy thereupon flung up his garland, and the Queen's Highness said, This devise is fine. ”

“ Osteler, who held it united to the other mediety, and at his death in 1431, Will. Blomevyle gave it to John Keer of Atleburgh; and in 1447, when Keer resigned, John Thompson was presented by Nic. Appleyard of Braken-ash, and Will. Blomevyle of Newton, Esqrs. and held it united to the other mediety; and on his resignation, Simon Blake succeeded, and the two medieties were consolidated, as before. The consolidated rectory stands by the name of Newton Flotman, in the King's Books; it is valued at 10l. and pays first fruits, and 1l. per annum tenths, and is not capable of augmentation. ”