The Farmers Boy | Page 6

p. vi, to his present Age,
May 1800. C. L.] and has three Children;" two Daughters and a
Son.[Footnote: Added from the information of Mr. R. BLOOMFIELD.
Hannah_, born 25 _Oct_. 1791. Mary Anne_, 6 Sept_. 1793. _Charles_,
15 _Sept. 1798.]
Mr. GEORGE BLOOMFIELD concludes this clear, affectionate, and
interesting Narrative, by a very kind Address to the Writer of this
Preface. But, pleas'd as I am with the good opinion of a Man like him, I
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