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In 1781 Blake fell in love with Catherine Sophia Boucher (1762–1831), the pretty, illiterate daughter of an unsuccessful market gardener from the farm village of Battersea across the River Thames from London. The family name suggests that they were Huguenots who had fled religious persecution in France. According to Blake’s friend John Thomas Smith, at their first meeting he told her how he had been jilted by Polly Wood, and Catherine said she pitied him from her heart. Blake returned to Soho to achieve financial security to support a wife, and 12 months later, on Aug. 18, 1782, the couple ...(100 of 6529 words)