This small booklet, entitled in full: Robert Blake, Admiral and General-at-Sea: A Sketch. It was published by Page & Son of Fore Street, who also published Rev. Arthur H. Powell’s Ancient Borough of Bridgwater (1907), and Bridgwater in the Later Days (1908). There is no note of the author or year of the booklet. The author is probably William Parr Greswell, who contributed chapters to Powell’s book, and who published a 38-page booklet on Blake with Page and Son in 1908, entitled ADMIRAL BLAKE General at Sea. This little booklet is probably a counterpart of a similar time. As an aside, Rev. Powell’s son, J.R. Powell would become a noted historian of Blake.
Robert Blake, Admiral and General-at-Sea: A Sketch gives a brief overview of Blake’s life and is a good introductory text. It concludes with the Spencer poem ‘Sleep after toyle, port after stormy seas, ease after war, death after life, doth greatly please’, which can also be found as part of one of the side panels on the Blake Statue on the Cornhill.
