copies, it is estimated, were sold in less than three years. Translations appeared in French and Italian, and one enthusiastic admirer threw a portion of the work (‘Spring’) into Latin hexameters. Lamb did not share the general admiration for the poor thin verse of the ‘Farmer’s Boy.’ Writing to Manning in November 1800, he says: ‘Don’t you think the fellow who wrote it (who is a shoemaker) has a poor mind? . . . I have just opened him, but he makes me sick.’ Byron some years later, in ‘English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,’ referred to Bloomfield in complimentary terms after some satirical lines upon Blackett, another poetical shoemaker [q. v.] The success of the ‘Farmer's Boy’ enable Bloomfield to remove to a small house in the City Road. About 1802 he received from the Duke of Grafton the post of undersealer in the Seal Office: but though the duties were light, his health would not permit him to attend to them, and he soon resigned. The duke made him an allowance (which was continued by his successor) of one shilling a day, and then Bloomfield employed himself in making Æolian harps. In 1802 appeared ‘Rural Tales,’ in 1804 ‘Good Tidings, or News from the Farm,’ and in 1806 ‘Wild Flowers.’ At the advice of some friends he now embarked in the book-trade, and soon became bankrupt. As he was in failing health, some friends took him in 1811 for a tour in Wales, and he recorded in a volume of verses, ‘The Banks of the Wye’ (1811), the impressions made upon him by the change of scene. In 1812 he retired for a time to Shefford, in Bedfordshire, returning to London in April of the following year. In June 1814 he went for a short tour to Canterbury and Dover. Having now become hypochondriacal and half blind, he retired to Shefford, where he died in great poverty on 19 Aug. 1828, leaving a widow and four children. Had he lived longer, he would probably have gone mad. Bernard Barton and others wrote verses to his memory, and a gravestone was raised to him in Campton Churchyard, Bedfordshire. In addition to the works previously mentioned Bloomfield published: l. ‘History of Little Davy’s New Hat,’ 1817. 2. ‘May-day with the Muses,’ 1822. 3. ‘Hazlewood Hall: a Village Drama,’ 1823. A collected edition of his works in three volumes, with a biographical sketch by Joseph Weston, appeared in 1824. Bloomfield was a man of a simple affectionate nature, but he was sadly wanting in independence and manliness. His letters preserved in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 28265-68) are singularly uninteresting, and afford convincing proof that he had, as Lamb said, a ‘poor mind.’ Selections from his correspondence were edited in 1870 by W. H. Hart. George Bloomfield, the elder brother, who also wrote verses, died—as he had lived—in wretched squalor, on 29 Jun. 1831.
[Joseph Weston's preface to the collected edition of Bloomfield's Works, 1824; Davy's Suffolk Collections, xci. 129-31, xciv. pp. 25-40; Add. MSS. 28265-68; Hone's Table Book, 801-5; Farmer’s Boy, ed. 1800.]
BLOOR, JOSEPH (d. 1846), brother of Robert Bloor, proprietor of the Old Derby China Works, was engaged at the works in sundry capacities, mainly in mixing ‘bodies’ for the paste. He died in 1846.
[Letter from Mr. Haslem, author of the ‘Old Derby China Factory.’]
BLOOR, ROBERT (d. 1846), ceramist, was probably born at Church Gresley, where many of his family are buried. He succeeded Kean and the second Duesbury at the Old Derby China Works, from whom he bought the concern, about the year 1810–11, for 5,000l. and the payment of certain annuities. He had for some time previously been clerk and salesman at the works. He was an energetic man of business, and greatly increased the sales of the manufacture, employing at one time as many as fifty painters, besides a great number of potters, burnishers, apprentices, women, and girls. Under his management, however, the former high quality and finished decoration of the Derby ware deteriorated. About the year 1820 his business was at its height; and, by the aid of auctions in various parts of England, Derby china, for the most part showily painted, but some of it slightly injured in the firing, was dispersed throughout the country; but this inferiority of the ware at length led to a falling off in the demand. In 1828 Bloor's mind gave way, and he never recovered. A statute of lunacy was taken out a few years before his death, which happened on 11 March 1846 at Hathern in Leicestershire. The works were then carried on by his widow and children, and finally by his granddaughter, Mrs. Thomas Clarke; she at length sold the concern to Samuel Boyle, who failed.
[Haslem's Old Derby China Factory; letters from Mr. Haslem; information supplied by S. Keys in Chaffers's Marks and Monograms on Pottery, 6th ed.]
BLORE, EDWARD (1787–1879), architect and artist, was born at Derby on 13 Sept. 1787, and was the eldest son of Thomas Blore, author of the ‘History of Rutland’ [q. v.] At an early age he began to display great fondness for architecture, and a facility in sketching;
