725 



BLOND, JACQUES CHBISTOPHE LE. 



BLOOMFIELD, ROBERT. 



726 



Chester; and in 1828 on his friend and patron Bishop Howley being 

 translated to the see of Canterbury, Bishop Blomfield was chosen 

 to succeed him as Bishop of London. Hia lordship has ever since 

 taken perhaps the most active and influential, if not always the most 

 prominent part, in the government of the established church, and a 

 leading position in the discussion of all ecclesiastical or semi-ecclesias- 

 tical subjects in the House of Lords. His conduct in the many 

 important matters connected with the doctrines and ceremonial 

 observances and innovations which have vexed or interested the 

 Church of England during the many years he has held his present 

 important post, has been much canvassed : into its merits however 

 we of course refrain from entering. But besides his watchful super- 

 vision of the general interests of the Church, Bishop Blomfield has 

 been a careful overseer of the clergy of his diocese, and prompt to 

 support any proposition which has appeared likely to improve the 

 condition of the labouring classes in the metropolis. Nor in the 

 briefest notice of Bishop Blomfield ought the amazing success of his 

 efforts for increasing the number of churches to pass unmentioned. 

 While Bishop of Chester he zealously set on foot efforts to erect new 

 churches in places insufficiently supplied; but it is in his London 

 diocese that success has most abundantly crowned his labours. 

 During the time that he has held the see there have been built in his 

 diocese a number of churches beyond all comparison greater than in 

 the presidency of any other bishop since the Reformation ; yet one of 

 his mo.it recent public acts has been to make an earnest appeal, seconded 

 by a large subscription, to the affluent and liberal to endeavour by a 

 vigorous effort to raise funds sufficient if possible to construct as many 

 additional churches as the Census Report of the Registrar-General 

 shows are still needed to meet the wants of the vast and rapidly 

 increasing population of the metropolis. 



The theological writings of Bishop Blomfield consist of 'Lectures 

 on the Acts of the Apostles,' and of numerous Sermons and Charges. 



BLOND, or BLON, JACQUES CHRISTOPHE LE, a miniature 

 painter, born at Frankfurt in 1670, known as the inventor of printing 

 in colours. He appears to have been studying in Rome as early as 

 1696, and he probably lived there many years. Before 1711 he was 

 practising as a miniature painter with great success in Amsterdam, 

 but he executed miniatures of so small a size that he injured his eyes, 

 and he waa forced to give up that style. He then for awhile practised 

 oil-painting; but he appears to have soon afterwards turned his 

 attention to printing in colours. He anticipated great results from 

 his discovery, and removed to Paris as a larger field of operation, but 

 not finding the encouragement he expected, he came to London. 

 Here he found ready subscribers to his novel plan of picture painting. 

 Those however whom his representations had persuaded to venture 

 money in the scheme were very much disappointed in the results. 

 His prints were flat and dirty, and gave but very faint copies of their 

 originals ; they were however efforts of groat merit and great novelty, 

 and with more perseverance than Le Blond possessed much good 

 might have resulted. Le Blond however, disheartened by the cold- 

 ness with which his prints were received, and a consequent bank- 

 ruptcy, neglected the discovery, and turned his attention to a new 

 scheme the weaving in tapestry of the cartoons of Raphael. 



His plan of printing was too simple to produce satisfactory results, 

 He used only three primary colours, and passed the prints three times 

 through the press, printing with one colour each time ; the secondary 

 and tertiary colours were obtained by printing one colour over one or 

 both of the other two primary colours ; and the impression was 

 repeated for those parts where great depth was necessary : they were 

 first engraved in mezzo-tinto. He published an account of his plan in 

 1722, in French and English, in 4to, entitled 'II Colorito, or the 

 Harmony of Colouring in Painting, reduced to Mechanical Practice, 

 under easy Precepts and infallible Rules,' with five examples, and a 

 dedication to Sir Robert Walpole. A second edition waa published in 

 Paris, in 1756, after the death of Le Blond, by one of his pupils, 

 under the title ' L'Art d'Imprimer les Tableaux.' Le Blond executed 

 altogether in this style thirty-three plates, many after the great 

 masters, and all very large ; some of the portraits, which are a con- 

 siderable proportion, are as large as life : they are extremely scarce. 



Le Blond found also much assistance towards the commencement of 

 his undertaking regarding the cartoons of Raphael, but it was so 

 inadequate to the full accomplishment of the tapestries, that after he 

 had spent all that was advanced, he saw the hopelessness of persisting ; 

 and in about 1737 ho went off to Paris, leaving hia friends the partly- 

 prepared apparatus as the indemnity for their outlay. In Paris he 

 again had recourse to his printing in colours, for which he took out a 

 patent in 1740, but he produced only two plates ; the enterprise 

 failed, and he himself is said to have died in an hospital in 1741. 



(Heineken, IdCe Gtntrale d'une Collection d'Estampes, and Diction- 

 naire da Artiifa, <kc. ; Hu'sgen, Artiatischet Magozin ; Huber, Manuel 

 do Amaleun, <fcc.; Strutt, ftictionaty of Engraven; Fiorillo, Gtschichte 

 der Zeichnenden Kiintte, <kc.) 



BLONDEL, or BLONDIAUX, a French minstrel of the 12th 

 century, and the friend of Richard I. of England, whom he accom- 

 panied to Palestine. The story of his discovery of Richard who on 

 his return from Palestine had been made a prisoner by Leopold, duke 

 of Austria, and confined in the castle of Lbwenstein by singing under 

 the CMtle wall* an air which they had formerly composed together, 



and to which Richard responded, is given by Fauchet, on the authority 

 of some old French chronicle, and has furnished the subject of a 

 well-known opera by Gretry. The truth of the story however is 

 doubted. 



BLOOD, THOMAS, generally called Colonel Blood, was a native of 

 Ireland, and an adventurer of no ordinary character. He is said to 

 have been born about 1628. For some time he served in Ireland aa a 

 lieutenant in the parliamentary forces. After the king's restoration, 

 the Act of Settlement in Ireland, by affecting Blood's fortune, made 

 him discontented beyond the common feeling of the republican party, 

 and finding a design on foot for a general insurrection, which was to 

 be begun by surprising the Castle of Dublin, and seizing the person 

 of the Duke of Ormond, the then lord-lieutenant, he joined it, and 

 ultimately became its leader. The conspiracy however which had 

 been long suspected, was discovered upon the eve of its execution. 

 Colonel Blood fled, but one Lackie, a minister (his brother-in-law), 

 with various others, were apprehended, convicted, and executed. 

 Blood secured his retreat to Holland, where he is stated to have been 

 received into intimacy by some considerable persons in the republic. 

 From Holland he came to England, and joined the Fifth Monarchy 

 men, whose plans giving no promise of success he withdrew to Scot- 

 land, where he took part with the covenanters, and was present in the 

 action of Pentland Hills, November 27th, 1666. After that defeat he 

 again went to England, where he lived for a time in disguise, medita- 

 ting revenge against the Duke of Ormond ; whom he actually seized 

 on the night of December 6th, 1670, iu his coach in St. James's-street, 

 with the intent, as was believed, of carrying him to Tyburn to hang 

 him. The duke's servants after a severe struggle rescued their master. 

 Blood's connection with this enterprise was not suspected ; nor, 

 though a reward of 1000Z. was offered by proclamation to discover the 

 perpetrators of the crime, could any of the gang be apprehended. 



The miscarriage of this design put him upon one still more strange 

 and hazardous to repair his broken fortunes. He proposed to the 

 same desperate persons who had assisted him in the former attempt, 

 to join him in seizing the regalia of England ; he waa to contrive the 

 means, and they were to devote themselves to the service. His scheme 

 was so well laid, and executed with so bold a spirit, that on the 9th 

 of May 1671 he so far carried his point as to get a part of the regalia 

 (the crown and orb) into his possession. Blood, who had assumed the 

 disguise of a clergyman, concealed the crown beneath his cloak, but 

 waa pursued and taken. One of his companions, Parret, had the orb. 

 Blood and Parret, with another of the party, were now committed to 

 the Tower-jail, where, strange to say, at the instigation of the Duke 

 of Buckingham, then the favourite and first minister, the king himself 

 visited him ; finally pardoned him, took him into favour at court, and 

 gave him a pension. For several years applications were constantly 

 made to the throne through the mediation of Colonel Blood ; and the 

 indulgence shown to him became a public scandal. When the ministry 

 styled the 'Cabal' fell to pieces, Colonel Blood's consequence at court 

 declined. He then became an enemy to hia former patron, the Duke 

 of Buckingham, for a conspiracy to fix a scandalous imputation upon 

 whom he was convicted in the court of King's Bench, and committed 

 to prison ; but finding bail, waa allowed to retire to his house in the 

 Bowling Alley in Westminater, where he died August 24th 1680. 



(Remarks on Some Eminent Passages in the Life of the Fam'd Mr. 

 Blood, fol, London, 1680 ; Sir Gilbert Talbot, Narrative of Blud's 

 Attempt on the Grown in the Tower, Harl. M.S., No. 6859; The Nar- 

 rative of Colonel Thomas Blood, Concerning the Design Reported to 

 be laid Againtt the Life and Honour of George, Duke of Buckingham, 

 folio, London, 1680.) 



BLOOMFIELD, ROBERT, an English pastoral poet, was the young- 

 est of si. children of George Bloomfield, a tailor at Honington, a village 

 near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, where Robert was born, Decem- 

 ber 3rd, 1766. Having in early infancy lost hia father, hia mother 

 obtained a scanty subsistence for her family by keeping a little school, 

 in which he himself was taught to read. At the age of eleven he was 

 hired in the neighbourhood as a farmer's boy ; but being found too 

 feeble for agricultural labour, he was placed with a relative in London 

 to become a shoemaker. With no assistance or stimulus beyond the 

 reading of a newspaper, and a few borrowed books of poetry, of which 

 his favourite was Thomson's 'Seasons,' he composed his very pleasing 

 rural poem ' The Farmer's Boy ' in a poor garret, No. 14, Bell Alley, 

 Coleman-street, whilst at work with aix or seven others, who paid each 

 a shilling a week for their lodging. The manuacript, after being offered 

 to, and refused by, aeveral London publishers, was printed under tho 

 patronage of Capel Lofft, Esq., in 1800 ; and the admiration it produced 

 was ao general that, within three years after its publication, more than 

 26,000 copies were sold. An edition was published in the following 

 year at Leipzig. At Paris a translation, entitled ' Le Valet du Fermier,' 

 waa made by Etienne Allard ; one was made into Italian ; and in 

 London appeared, in 1805, 'Agricolas Puer, poema Robert! Bloom- 

 field celeberrimum, in versus Latinos redditum' auctoro Qulieltno 

 Clubbe, LL.B. : a very clever effort in imitation of the ' Georgics.' 



The fame of Bloomfield was increased by the subsequent publication 

 of ' Rural Tales, Ballads, and Songe,' ' Good Tidings, or News from the 

 Farm,' 'Wild Flowers,' and 'Banks of the Wye.' He was kindly 

 noticed by the Duke of Grafton, by whom he was appointed to a situa- 

 tion in the Seal office ; but suffering from constitutional ill-health, ho 



