CHARACTERS. 



319 



rying when Robert was about seven 

 years old. 



By her second husband, John 

 Glover, she had another family. 



When Robert was not above 

 eleven years old, the late Mr. W. 

 Austin, of Sapiston, took him. And 

 though it is customary for farmers 

 to pay such boys only ls.6d. per 

 week, yet he generously took him 

 into the house. This relieved his 

 mother of any other expense than 

 only of finding him a few things to 

 wear : and this was more than she 

 well knew how to do. 



"She wrote, therefore, to me and 

 my brother Nat (then in London) 

 to assist her ; mentioning that he, 

 Robert, was so small of his age 

 that Mr. Austin said he was not 

 likely to be able to get his living 

 by hard labour." 



Mr. G. Bloomfield, on this, in- 

 formed his mother thatjif she would 

 let him take the boy with him, he 

 would take him, and teach him to 

 make shoes: and Nat promised to 

 clothe him. The mother, upon this 

 offer, took coach and came to Lon- 

 don, to Mr. G. Bloomfield, with 

 the boy: for she said, she never 

 should have been happy if she had 

 not put him herself into his hands. 



" She charged me," he adds, 

 "as I valued a mother's blessing, to 

 watch over him, to set good exam- 

 ples for him, and never to forget 

 that he had lost his father." These 

 are Mr. G. Bloomfield's own words; 

 and it would wrong all the parties 

 concerned if, in mentioning this 

 pathetic and successful admonition, 

 any other were to be used. He came 

 from Mr. Austin's, June 29, 1781. 



Mr. G. Bloomfield then lived at 

 Mr. Simm's, No. 7, Pitcher's-court, 

 Bell-alley, Coleman-street. " It if 

 customary," lie continues, in such 



houses as are let to poor people in 

 London, to have light garrets fit 

 for mechanics to work in. In the 

 garret, where we had two turn-up 

 beds, and five of us worked, I re- 

 ceived little Robert. 



"As we were all single men, lod- 

 gers at a shilling per week each, our 

 beds were coarse, and all things 

 far from being clean and snug, like 

 what Robert had left at Sapiston. 

 Robert was our man, to fetch all 

 things to hand. At noon he fetched 

 our dinners from the cook's shop : 

 and any one of our feUow work- 

 men that wanted to have any thing 

 fetched in, would send him, and 

 assist in his work and teach him 

 for a recompence for his trouble. 



"Every day when the boy from 

 the public-house came for the pew- 

 ter pots, and to hear what porter 

 was wanted, he always brought the 

 yesterday's newspaper. The read- 

 ing of the paper we had been used 

 to take by turns ; but after Robert 

 came, he mostly read for us, be- 

 cause his time was of least valug. 



" He frequently met with words 

 that he was unacquainted with : 

 of this he often complained. I one 

 day happened at a book-stall to see 

 a small dictionary, which had been 

 very ill used. I bought it for him 

 for 4:d. By the help of this he in a 

 little time could read and compre- 

 hend the long and beautiful speeches 

 of Burke, Fox, or North. 



" One Sunday, after an whole 

 day's stroll in the country, we by ac- 

 cident went into a dissenting-meet- 

 ing-house, in the Old Jewry, where 

 a gentleman was lecturing. This 

 man filled Robert with astonish- 

 ment. The house was amazingly 

 crowded with the most genteel peo- 

 ple; and though we were forced 

 to stand still in the aisle, and were 



