Bloomfield

“ That instant the national air changes to a rapid waltz, and in the twinkling of an eye, the whole of that spacious floor is covered thick with the whirling multitude. The sober Mr Bloomfield, to whom such a scene is quite a novelty, grows giddy with the mere view of it. He looks with all his might, but he ought to have a hundred pairs of eyes to watch the mazes of this dance. One couple after another appear and vanish as if by enchantment. He sees a bewitching face—he strives to follow it—impossible!—in a minute fifty substitutes are presented to him—it is lost in a living whirlpool of faces. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Here, amidst all the din and bustle made by six or seven persons, pursuing the same trade as his own, did Bloomfield compose The Farmer's Boy; committing it to paper as he found opportunity, fifty, or a hundred lines at a time, and arranging them as they were afterwards printed, in the exact order in which they had been referred by imagination to memory. The strength of the latter faculty was indeed particularly exerted in the two last divisions of his poem: the whole of his Winter and great part of his Autumn having been entirely finished before a single verse was written down. ”

“ The three brothers, George Bloomfield, a shoemaker, Nathaniel, a tailor, and Robert, also a shoemaker, were the sons of a tailor at Honington, in Suffolk, whose wife kept the village school. (For further details as to George and Nathaniel, see
English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers
, lines 765-798, and
notes
.)
Robert Bloomfield (1766-1823) achieved a success with his
Farmer's Boy
(1800) , of which thousands of copies were sold in England, and which was translated into French and Italian. ”

“ From the little that can at present be ascertained of the family of Bloomfield, it appears that the great-grandfather of the Poet, both on the male and on the female side, is the most distant ancestor whose relationship can regularly be traced; and it is singular that both these relations were tailors, and that they were both placed out to that trade by ladies, whose names are now unknown. ”

“ His domestic affairs were greatly improved by the various presents which he received from those who were emulous to reward the exertion of talents under such untoward circumstances, and, conjoined with the profits derived from the sale of the work, enabled him to emerge from the obscurity of his former situation, and to remove to a small house near the Shepherd and Shepherdess, in the City Road. One of the greatest pleasures, however, resulting to Bloomfield from the printing of The Farmer's Boy, was the opportunity of transmitting a copy to his mother ”

“ Besides all this there are the countless shorter poems, each conveying an impression of some particular scene or aspect of nature; the poet of the open air, like the landscape painter, is ever on the look out for picturesque "bits" and atmospheric effects as a subject. In Bloomfield we get something altogether different—a simple, consistent, and fairly complete account of the country people's toilsome life in a remote agricultural district in England—a small rustic village set amid green and arable fields, woods and common lands. ”

“ Bloomfield may be said to have rendered immortal by the beautiful and pathetic poem inscribed to it in his Wild Flowers. The first was sold for 6l. 10s., the second for 14l. I am happy in the possession of the original miniature (an admirable likeness, and finely painted) of Robert Bloomfield, by Edridge. It is the first and most authentic portrait of him that was engraved, and prefixed to his poems:
"And long as Nature in her simplest guise,
And virtuous sensibility we prize,
Of well-earn'd fame no poet shall enjoy
A fairer tribute than The Farmer's Boy." ”

“ The family of Bloomfield consists of his wife, three daughters, and a son: to the latter, who is unfortunately afflicted with lameness, his father has dedicated his Wild Flowers. His wife's father is also resident in his house, and it will not be thought undeserving of notice, by those for whom the "simple annals of the poor" have interest, that the "Old Oak Table" upon whose "back" The Farmer's Boy was written, was a gift from this relation towards housekeeping; and to use the words of Bloomfield himself, composed of his
Worldly wealth, the parent stock. ”

“ Arthur P. Bloomfield, who is living retired in Columbia county after many years of successful farming, was born in New Jersey, February 6, 1840, a son of Jonathan and Theodosia (Foster) Bloomfield, the former born in England and the latter in New Jersey, in which state they were married. The father passed away in New Jersey and subsequently the mother became a resident of California, where her demise occurred. To them were born three children, of whom only our subject survives. ”

“ Bloomfield. For themselves, they both agreed it was much better to submit quietly, and at once, to all these impositions; even if there were a fair chance, after much controversy, of a successful resistance. There is surely no money so well laid out as that which purchases equanimity.
They were extricated at length, and the carriage rattled on into Naples. Mr. Bloomfield had written to procure apartments in the quarter of the Chiaja, opposite the Villa Reale, (or royal gardens.) To these therefore they drove. Winston of course found his way to an hotel. ”

“ First settled about 1670-1675 by the Dutch and by New Englanders from the Newark colony, Bloomfield was long a part of Newark, the principal settlement at first being known as Wardsesson. In 1796 it was named Bloomfield in honour of General Joseph Bloomfield (1753-1823) , who served (1775-1778) in the War of American Independence, reaching the rank of major, was governor of New Jersey in 1801-1802 and 1803-1812, brigadier-general in the United States army during the War of 1812, and a Democratic representative in Congress from 1817 to 1821. The township of Bloomfield was incorporated in 1812. ”

“ Nothing could be more quiet—to look at the exterior—than the house she called her home. It stood at the extremity of the town, protected from the road by its own neat inclosure of turf and gravel-walk—surely as remote from every species of disturbance or excitement as the most devoted student could desire. We question even whether a barrel-organ or a hurdy-gurdy was ever known to commit an outrage upon its tranquillity; and for its interior, were not Mr and Miss Bloomfield (they were brother and sister, uncle and aunt of Mildred) the most staid, orderly, methodical persons in the world? ”

“ Despite his trouble, Riddell could hardly conceal a smile of pleasure at this honour, which, though not exactly unexpected, he had hardly realised till now.
“Oh, I say,” said he, “I’m certain there are lots of better fellows.”
“You may be quite sure if there had been Bloomfield would have picked them up,” said Fairbairn. “As it happens, we want a slip, and I heard Bloomfield say himself that you are awfully good there. You seem to have hidden your light under a bushel, old man, while in the schoolhouse.” ”

“ Bloomfield's reputation rests on his "Farmer's Boy"—on some exquisite passages in "News from the Farm"—and on some of the tales and pictures in his "May-day with the Muses." His smaller poems are very inferior to those of Clare—but the Northamptonshire Peasant has written nothing in which all honest English hearts must delight, at all comparable with those truly rural compositions of the Suffolk shoemaker. It is in his power to do so—would he but earnestly set himself to the work. He must be more familiar with all the ongoings of rural life than his compeer could have been ”

“ But now, if he was expected to lug that great heavy boat back by himself, not only would he not get that, but the chances were he would get locked out for chapel altogether, and it would be no excuse that he had had to act as galley-slave for Bloomfield or anybody else.
“Look alive!” cries Bloomfield from the bank, where he is already stripped for his header. “And, by the way, on your way up go round to Chalker’s and tell him only to stick up one set of cricket nets in our court; don’t forget, now. Be quick; you’ve not too much time before chapel.” ”

“ Bloomfield's brother, a tall, self-sufficient fellow, with dark hair and sallow complexion like his sister, a nose that seemed to disdain the earth, and little grey eyes, frequently half closed, with a mixture of real stupidity and affected contempt of all surrounding objects. He was a thick-set, strongly built man, but he had found some means of compressing his waist into a remarkably small compass, and that, together with the unnatural stiffness of his form, showed that the lofty-minded, manly Mr. Robson, the scorner of the female sex, was not above the foppery of stays. ”

“ To one long accustomed to the quiet and monotony of a country life, it would be difficult to present a spectacle more novel or striking than this of a public ball-room; and though for such a novelty it was not necessary to cross the water, yet assuredly, in his own country, Mr Bloomfield would never have been present at such a spectacle. We go abroad as much to throw ourselves for a time into new manners of life, as to find new scenes of existence. ”

“ BLOOMFIELD appears fully to possess the simple, yet elegant, pathetic, and animated flow of Composition, the sweetness of Diction, Thought, and Numbers, which the SONG or BALLAD in their best character require. ”

“ Two blacks—nay twenty—won't make a white. True—but one black is as black as another—and the Southern Pot, brazen as it is, must not abuse with impunity the Northern Pan. But now to the right nail, and let us knock it on the head. What did England do for her own Bloomfield? He was not in genius to be spoken of in the same year with Burns—but he was beyond all compare, and out of all sight, the best poet that had arisen produced by England's lower orders. He was the most spiritual shoemaker that ever handled an awl. The "Farmer's Boy" is a wonderful poem—and will live in the poetry of England. ”

“ Most of those enumerated have displayed great powers; some of them have proved themselves fit to begin greatest works; but none of them, whether he has begun, or only thought of beginning, has been able to finish. Bloomfield, the tame, emasculate Burns of England, has written certain pleasing and genuine poems smelling of the soil, but the 'Farmer's Boy' remained what the Scotch poet would have called a 'haflin callant,' and never became a full-grown and brawny man. ”

“ BLOOMFIELD, JOHN ARTHUR DOUGLAS, second Baron Bloomfield (1802–1879) , diplomatist, was the son of Benjamin Bloomfield. created, 14 May 1825, Baron Bloomfield in the peerage of Ireland [see Bloomfield, Benjamin] . He was born 12 Nov. 1802, and at the early age of sixteen became an attache to the embassy at Vienna. Throughout his life he remained in the diplomatic service, and his history consists of little more than a list of the places where he served his countiy. He was paid attache at Lisbon, October 1824 ”

“ The summit of Shooter's Hill commands a most extensive and variegated prospect, overlooking as large a city and as fine a country as any in the universe. This place was visited by Bloomfield solely for the recovery of his health. ”

“ Bloomfield had not much to say against it, for his favourite beverage was gin and water, of which he took a considerable portion every day, by dint of constant sipping—and to that, I chiefly attributed his dingy complexion and waspish temper.
Mr. Robson likewise encouraged Tom's propensity to persecute the lower creation, both by precept and example. ”

“ Pure as the breath of spring when forth it spreads,
Love in their hearts, and sunshine on their heads.
Next day I felt what I was bound to do,
To weigh the adventure well, and tell it too;
For Alfred's mother must not be beguiled,
He was her earthly hope, her only child;
I had no wish, no right to pass it by,
It might bring grief, perhaps calamity.
She was the judge, and she alone should know
Whether to check the flame or let it grow.
I went with fluttering heart, and moisten'd eye,
But strong in truth, and arm'd for her reply.
"Well, master Bowman, why that serious face?" ”

“ Lady Bloomfield, a 'grand dame' of an old school, kept up her friendship with Queen Victoria and her family, and delighted in social intercourse with all classes. While deeply religious on old, low church lines, she was tolerant and charitable. She founded in 1874 the Trained Nurses' Annuity Fund, and built and endowed almshouses on her husband's estate near Newport, co. ”

“ The commencement of this revolution in the King’s sentiments is to be dated from the journey to Hanover. Now Bloomfield sits amongst the guests at dinner at the Pavilion; the honours are done by the father on one side and the son on the other.
1822. July 16th, 1822
Since I wrote last I have been continually in town. I have won on the Derby, my sister is married, [8] and [51] DEATH OF LORD LONDONDERRY. I have done nothing worth recording. How habit and practice change our feelings, our opinions; and what an influence they have upon our thoughts and actions! ”