Page:The letters of William Blake (1906).djvu/55

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THE LIFE OF

WILLIAM BLAKE

WILLIAM BLAKE was born on the 20th^[1] of November 1757, at 28 Broad Street, Carnaby Market, London, a house now inhabited by Mr. Russell, apothecary; he was the second of five children. His father, James Blake, was a hosier of respectable trade and easy habits, and seems to have been a man well-to-do, of moderate desires, moderate enjoyments, and of substantial worth: his disposition was gentle, and, by all accounts, his temper amiable, and was,

↑ Gilchrist gives the date correctly as the 28th November. The late Dr. Garnett wrote in his monograph on Blake (Seeley & Co., 1895, p. 7, n.): "November 20 has been stated as the date, but the above is shown to be correct by the horoscope drawn for November 28, 7.45 p.m., in Urania or the Astrologer's Chronicle. 1825, published therefore in Blake's lifetime, and undoubtedly derived from Varley."

1

[1] Gilchrist gives the date correctly as the 28th November. The late Dr. Garnett wrote in his monograph on Blake (Seeley & Co., 1895, p. 7, n.): "November 20 has been stated as the date, but the above is shown to be correct by the horoscope drawn for November 28, 7.45 p.m., in Urania or the Astrologer's Chronicle. 1825, published therefore in Blake's lifetime, and undoubtedly derived from Varley."

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