Ilis Life 
With anxsous expectation for his earliest 
gleam, to discover to my enraptured 
fancy the sublime beauties of that great 
master. And thus did I continue to 
cultivate with the Muse a friendship, 
for so I must call it, most dear and con¬ 
genial to my heart, with that divine 
poet, at all borrowed or stolen hours, 
until the expiration of my apprentice¬ 
ship, when I became a lodger of the 
brother I had served, but whose wife 
unfortunately died in a consumption 
about this period. Her sister, some¬ 
time after, 1 married, and lived happy 
tor three years, during which time I 
assiduously courted the Muse of Trage¬ 
dy, who coiitinued to claim all the at¬ 
tention I could spilre from my business, 
which [ prosecuted with tolerable suc¬ 
cess, and made my family comfortable 
and happy; but, alas! I soon experienced 
a sad reverse. 
In 1807, after a long illness, I lost 
the wife I so much loved, who fell a 
victim to the same complaint as her 
sister. At that wretched period, to 
add to my misfortunes, her sister, who 
had previously been sei>t for from the 
country to attend her, was confined to 
her bed by a raging fever, which depri¬ 
ved her for a considerable time of reason, 
and nearly of life. Judge of my situa¬ 
tion, sir; a dear wife stretched on the 
bed of death; a sister senseless, whose 
dissolution in tliat state I expected every 
hour; an infant piteously looking round 
for its mother; creditors clamourous; 
friends cold or absent! I then found, 
like the melancholy Jaques, that, ‘^when 
the deer was stricken, the herd w'ould 
shun himJ' It will not appear strange 
to you, sir, when informed, that I w'as 
under the necessity of disposing of every 
thing, wiiich I actually did, and, with 
the sum, discharged a part of the debts 
I had unavoidably contracted. After 
the burial of my wife, her sister, thank 
heaven, recovered ; when, sending my 
little daughter to a kind friend at Dept¬ 
ford, where she still remains, I quitted 
the roof of departed happiness with 
anguish; and, to alleviate my sufferings, 
in tediuus solitude, began to commit to 
paper some of those thoughts which 
my kind friend, Mr. IMarchant, introduced 
to your perusal, and which you have 
had tlie goodness to examine. 
“ Thus, sir, I have given a brief 
sketch of" my life, wliich, latterly, has 
been one continued scene of trouble; 
but, I iiope, through the medium of 
your kind friendship, to be enabled to 
5 
and Death. O 71 
taste once more of happiness among 
my fellow-countrymen, and publicly dis^ 
play those ideas and sentiments which, 
in secret, I have cherished vvitJi unaba¬ 
ting ardour.’^ J. B. 
P. S. I have omitted one thing, sir, in 
my memoir, of which you may probably 
wish to be informed, viz. the names of the 
several poets, to the perusal of whose 
works 1 had dedicated my leisure liours, 
and to whose exalted sentiments I owe the 
expansion of my idea.s: for your information 
on this point, I will here enumerate them. 
—Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Young, Ot¬ 
way. Rowe, Beattie, Tiiompson, &c. to- 
getlier with one volume of Virgil’s 
with which I was much delighted, and read 
with particular attention: indeed, one or 
other of these authors was constantly in 
my pocket or under my pillow. I might 
add the History of the Heathen Gods, and 
every book that I could either borrow or 
buy, which I thought likely to improve me 
on any of my favourite subjects. I do not 
know, sir, whether you may not think it 
wandering from the objects of my scattered 
studies to observe, that I have visited most 
of the exhibitions of painting and sculp¬ 
ture ; and from th'e subjects of the artist 
have collected many ideas, which, pro¬ 
bably, otherwise 1 could never have at¬ 
tained.” 
Ills death, desciubed in a letter to 
MRJ PRATT, FROM THE REV. MR, 
WALLIS. 
Sir, Seahem, Sep. 11, 1810. 
“ Ever since Mr. Blacket became a 
resident here, I have felt particularly 
interested in his welfare, as well on ac¬ 
count of his uncommon talents, as his 
engaging manners. To Sir Ralph and 
Lady Miibanke, he was peculiarly in¬ 
debted for kindly and jiberaiiy supply, 
ing him -with every comfort and con¬ 
venience in their power; and from,their 
amiable and accomplished daughter, who 
is a favourite of the Muses as well as 
lie was himself, he received the most 
marked and unremitting attention. It 
was, alas 1 but too soon perceived and 
announced by tiie faculty, notwithstand¬ 
ing the hopes occasionaliy indulged by 
his friends, that his malady was witfjout 
remedy, which he comiMunicaJed to me 
about two months ago,saying, at ilie sum® 
time, ‘‘ that his wife went off in a similar 
manner.” 
“ After that, I thought my visirs,_a 3 a 
friend, should bear a relation to those 
of a clergyman, and arcordinglv, wpeii 
1 next saw him, I iotroduced the pain, 
ful subject of his declining state, and 
hinted tlie propriety of having recourse 
to 
