The Farmers Boy | Page 6

must not take praise to myself for not having neglected or suppress'd such a Work when it came into my hands. And I have no farther merit than that of seeing what it was impossible for an unprejudiced Mind not to see, and of doing what it was impossible not to do.
But I join with him cordially in his prayer, "that GOD, _the Giver of thought_, may, as mental light spreads, raise up many who will turn a listening ear, and will not despise
"The short and simple annals of the Poor."
Very few words will complete what remains to be added.
Struck with the Work, but not less struck with the remark, which is become a proverb, of the Roman Satirist, that "it is not easy?[Footnote:?Haud facile emergunt quorum virtutibus obstat?Res angusta domi.]?for those to emerge to notice whose circumstances obscure the observation of their Merits," I sent it to a Friend,[Footnote: This Friend, THOMAS HILL, Esq. I hope will forgive my mentioning him without asking his consent.] whom I knew to be above these prejudices: and who has deserv'd, and is deserving, well of the public, in many other instances, by his attention to Literature and the elegant Arts. He immediately express'd an high satisfaction in it; and communicated it to the Publishers. They adopted it upon terms honorable to themselves, and satisfactory to the Author, and to me in his behalf. They have publish'd it in a manner which speaks abundantly for itself; both as to the typographical accuracy and beauty, and the good taste and execution of the Ornaments in Wood.
My part has been this, and it has been a very pleasing one: to revise the MS. making occasionally corrections with respect to Orthography, and sometimes in the grammatical construction. The corrections, in point of Grammar, reduce themselves almost wholly to a circumstance of provincial usage, which even well educated persons in Suffolk_ and _Norfolk do not wholly avoid; and which may be said, as to general custom, to have become in these Counties almost an established Dialect:... that of adopting the plural for the singular termination of verbs, so as to exclude the _s_. But not a line is added or substantially alter'd through the whole poem. I have requested the MS. to be preserv'd for the satisfaction of those who may wish to be satisfied on this head.
The Proofs have gone through my hands. It has been printed slowly: because most carefully: as it deserv'd to be printed.
I have no doubt of its Reception with the Public: I have none of its going down to Posterity with honor; which is not always the Fate of productions which are popular in their day.
Thus much I know:... that the Author, with a spirit amiable at all times, and which would have been rever'd by Antiquity, seems far less interested concerning any Fame or Advantage he may derive from it to himself, than in the pleasure of giving a printed Copy of it, as a tribute of duty and affection, to his MOTHER; in whose pleasure, if it succeeds, his filial heart places the gratification of which it is most desirous. It is much to be a POET, such as he will be found:... it is more to be such a MAN.
CAPEL LOFFT.
TROSTON, n. BURY, SUFFOLK.
12 Dec. 1799.
ELIZABETH MANBY, the Mother of the Author of this POEM, was sister to the wife of Mr. WILLIAM AUSTIN. I had written to Mr. GEORGE BLOOMFIELD to request the name, before Marriage, of his Mother. This gain'd me an Answer, which I have great pleasure in adding.
"The late Mr. AUSTIN'S wife was a Manby (my Mother's sister). And it may seem strange that, in the FARMER'S BOY, Giles no where calls him Uncle_, but _Master_.... The treatment that my Brother _Robert experienced from Mr. Austin did not differ in any respect from the treatment that all the Servant Boys experienc'd who lived with him. Mr. Austin was Father of fourteen Children by my Aunt (he never had any other wife). He left a decent provision for the five Children that surviv'd him: so that it could not be expected he should have any thing to give to poor Relations. And I don't see a possibility of making a difference between GILES and the Boys that were not related to Mr.Austin: for he treated all his Servants exactly as he did his Sons. They all work'd hard; all liv'd well. The DUKE had not a better Man Tenant to him than the late Mr. Austin. I saw numbers of the Husbandmen in tears when he was buried. He was beloved by all who knew him. But I imagine Robert thought that when he was speaking of Benevolence that was universal, he had no occasion to mention the accidental circumstance of his being related to