In this humble station our Poet acquired that intimate knowledge of rural occupations and manners, the display of which forms the distinguishing feature through all his writings. If the perceptive faculties of his mind had not been improved by education, they were at least unclouded by its dogmas; and the sensibility of his soul being awakened by the charms of nature, gave fervour to his thoughts, and he then attained that distinctness of idea and individuality of conception, which became the basis of his subsequent greatness.
Before the age of fifteen it was requisite to make some change in the employment of young Bloomfield, as Mr. Austin had informed his mother that he was so small of his age, as to be very little likely to be able to get his living by hard labour: she wrote therefore to her two elder sons, George and Nathaniel, who were then resident in London: and the former, a ladies' shoemaker, offered to take him and teach him his own business; whilst the latter, a tailor, promised to find him in clothes. On this offer his mother brought him to town, and intrusted him to the care of his brother George, charging him, as "he valued a mother's blessing, to watch over him, to set good examples for him, and never to forget that he had, lost his father."
