tired to the village of Stoke-Newington, where he resided to the end of his life. Here he still continued zealously to devote himself to literary labours, and besides editing the Monthly Magazine,' and continuing the publication of the General Biography,' produced a variety of minor essays, translations, and fugitive pieces. In 1801 he composed for the use of young people a very instructive little volume, entitled 'The Arts of Life.' In 1803 he amused himself with the composition of a volume of 'Letters to a Young Lady on a course of English Poetry;' and shortly afterwards undertook a work, entitled, Geographical Delineations,' '—a performance for which his daughter claims the title of "the philosophy of geography." In 1806 Dr Aikin's connection with the Monthly Magazine' ceased, and he engaged in the establishment of a new periodical, entitled, 'The Athenæum,' which was carried on during two years and a half. In 1809, during a suspension of the publication of the biography, he translated, from the Latin, Memoirs of the Life of P. D. Huet, Bishop of Avranches, written by Himself;' and in 1812 appeared his 'Memoirs of Selden and Usher.' Towards the close of 1811 he accepted the editorship of Dodsley's Annual Register;' and in 1815 he completed the 'General Biography,'-the task of twenty years. Dr Aikin was now 68 years of age, but he still kept planning new literary designs. His last publications were his 'Select Works of the British Poets,' and Annals of the Reign of George III.' Shortly after the appearance of the latter work he had a severe and dangerous shock of the palsy, after which his health and spirits gradually sunk, until a stroke of apoplexy closed the scene, on the 7th of December, 1822. He was interred in the church-yard of Stoke-Newington, where a simple monument is erected to his memory. Dr Aikin, to quote his daughter's description, "was of the middle stature, and well-proportioned though spare; his carriage was erect, his step light and active. His eyes were grey and lively, his skin naturally fair, but in his face much pitted with the small-pox. The expression of his countenance was mild, intelligent, and cheerful; and its effect was aided in conversation by the tones of a voice clear and agreeable, though not powerful." In his political principles Dr Aikin was a devoted admirer of free and liberal institutions, and a staunch contender for the liberty of the subject. Robert Bloomfield. BORN A. D. 1766.-DIED A. D. 1823. ROBERT BLOOMFIELD was the youngest son of George Bloomfield, a tailor, and his wife, Elizabeth, a school-mistress, in the village of Honington, in Suffolk, and was born on the 3d of December, 1776. Before Robert was a year old his father died, leaving his widow with six children. Assisted by her friends she managed to give each of them a little education: two or three months' instruction in writing, however, from Mr Rodwell of Ixworth, was all the scholastic accomplishment that Robert obtained. When he was about eleven years old he was taken into the house, and employed in the farm of Mr W. Austin, of Sapiston, who was married to Bloomfield's maternal aunt; but, after some time, 2 H VIII. finding him so small of his age, and unfit for such hard labour, Mr Austin signified the same to his mother, who, having married again, and got a second young family to attend to, wrote immediately to two of his eldest brothers, George and Nathaniel-then settled in London-for their advice and assistance,-when the former readily offered to teach him the business of a shoemaker, and the latter undertook to clothe him. The mother came to London, accordingly, and placed Robert in the care of his brother George, charging the latter "as he valued a mother's blessing, to watch over him, to set good examples before him, and never to forget that he had lost his father." "It is customary," says Mr G. Bloomfield, who at that time lived at No. 7, Fisher's-court, Coleman-street, "in such houses as are let to poor people in London, to have light garrets fit for mechanics to work in. In the garret, where we had two turn-up beds, and five of us worked, I received little Robert. As we were all single men, lodgers at a shilling per week each, our beds were coarse, and things were far from being neat and snug, as Robert had been accustomed to at Sapiston. He was our man, to fetch all things to hand. At noon he brought our dinner from the cook's shop: and any of our fellow-workmen that wanted any thing fetched in, would send him, and assist in his work and teach him by way of recompense for his trouble. Every day when the boy from the public house came for the pewter-pots, and to hear what porter was wanted, he always brought the yesterday's newspaper. The reading of the paper we had been used to take by turns; but after Robert came, he mostly read for us, because his time was of least value. He often met with words he was not acquainted with: and of this he frequently complained. I one day happened, at a book-stall, to see a small dictionary, which had been very ill-used. I bought it for four-pence. By the help of this, in a little time, he could read and comprehend the long and beautiful speeches of Burke, Fox, or North. One Sunday, after a whole day's stroll in the country, we, by accident, went into a dissenting meeting-house in the Old Jewry, where a gentleman was lecturing. This man filled little Robert with astonishment. The house was amazingly crowded with the most genteel people; and though we were forced to stand still in the aisle, and were much pressed, yet Robert always quickened his steps to get into the town on a Sunday evening soon enough to attend this lecture. The preacher lived somewhere at the west end of the town-his name was Fawcet. His language was just such as the Rambler is written in; his action like a person acting in tragedy; his discourse rational, and quite free from the cant of Methodism. Of him Robert learned to accent what he called hard words; and otherwise improved himself; and gained the most enlarged notions of Providence. He went sometimes with me to a debating society at Coachmaker's Hall, but not often; and occasionally to Covent Garden theatre. These are all the opportunities he ever had of learning from public speakers. As to books, he had to wade through two or three folios a History of England,' 'British Traveller,' and a Geography. But he always read them as a task, or to oblige us who bought them. And, as they came in sixpenny-numbers weekly, he had about as many hours to read as other boys spend in play. I, at this time, read the 'London Magazine;' and in that work about two sheets were set apart for a review, which Robert was always very eager to read. Here he |