Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/436

 Crabbe Wesleyans, evangelicals, and other troublesome innovators. His laxity in regard to residence now attracted official notice, and Pretyman, bishop of Lincoln, insisted about 1801, in spite of applications from Dudley North, that he should return to Muston. Crabbe obtained leave of absence for four years longer, which were spent at Rendham, a neighbouring village, Great Glemham Hall having been sold by North. In October 1805 he returned to Muston and found that dissent had thriven during his absence. He seems to have attacked it with more fire than prudence. The ‘Parish Register’ was finished at the end of 1806, having been begun eight years before. He offered the dedication to Fox, who had met him at Beaconsfield and afterwards in 1794 or 1795 at North's house in Suffolk, and shown him much courtesy. Fox, though now breaking, fulfilled a previous promise by reading and correcting it. The story of ‘Phœbe Dawson’ was one of the last pieces of poetry which gave pleasure to the dying statesman. The ‘Parish Register,’ with ‘Eustace Grey’ and other poems, appeared after Fox's death (September 1807) with a dedication to Lord Holland. It had a great success, and was followed by the equally successful ‘Borough’ in 1810. Some attacks upon the Huntingtonians in this poem produced a controversy with the editor of the ‘Christian Observer,’ which ended amicably. In 1812 appeared ‘Tales in Verse,’ which led to friendly communications with Scott, who had already written kindly of the ‘Parish Register.’

On 31 Oct. 1813 Mrs. Crabbe died, and the simultaneous occurrence of other troubles caused a severe illness. Crabbe had remained upon friendly terms with the Rutland family and occasionally visited Belvoir, where he was much pleased among other things with the talk of Beau Brummell [q. v.] The Duke of Rutland now offered him the living of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, to which was added, in order to make up for a mistake as to value, the living of Croxton, near Belvoir. He was inducted to Trowbridge Church on 3 June 1814. Here he had to encounter some opposition from the parishioners, who had pressed the claims of another candidate upon the patron, and was even mobbed at a contested election, when he showed unflinching firmness. He was welcomed by the chief people, and his liberality and independence gradually won general popularity. His son mentions certain flirtations which prove that he was still sensitive to feminine charms and capable of attracting feminine devotion. He was now famous, and on a visit to London in 1817 was welcomed at Holland House and received many attentions from Rogers, Moore, Campbell, and others. In 1819 he published the ‘Tales of the Hall.’ Murray paid him 3,000l. for these and the copyright of his previous poems, and Crabbe insisted upon carrying the bills about in his waistcoat pocket to show to ‘his son John.’ On a later visit to London (1822) he met Scott, and the same autumn visited Edinburgh, where he unluckily arrived during the welcome of George IV. He stayed at Scott's house and was introduced to the literary celebrities. Lockhart showed him the sights, and Scott occasionally entrusted him to a ‘caddie,’ as Colonel Mannering provided for Dominie Sampson. Crabbe showed equal simplicity, and was one day found discoursing in execrable French to some highland chiefs whose costume and Gaelic had suggested some indefinite foreign origin.

Crabbe led a retired life in later years, varied by occasional visits to his son George, now vicar of Pucklechurch, to the house of Samuel Hoare at Hampstead, where he met Wilberforce, Joanna Baillie, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Siddons, and others, and to seaside places. He saw Horace Smith, author of the famous parody in ‘Rejected Addresses,’ and spoke good-humouredly to his ‘old enemy.’ His second son, John, became his curate at Trowbridge at the beginning of 1817, having just married a Miss Crowfoot, and lived with him till his death. He suffered much from tic douloureux, but took great pleasure in his grandchildren, kept up his old habits of observation, performed services, and became increasingly liberal. His strength declined gradually, and he died 3 Feb. 1832.

A monument, with a statue by Baily, was erected in the church at Trowbridge at the cost of the parishioners. Portraits were painted by Pickersgill and Phillips. An engraving from the latter, painted for Mr. Murray and copied for Lord Holland, is prefixed to his works.

Horace Smith, in a note to ‘Rejected Addresses,’ called Crabbe ‘Pope in worsted stockings.’ Byron, in ‘English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,’ says that he is, ‘though nature's sternest painter, yet the best.’ The resemblance to Pope consists chiefly in the fact that Crabbe retained the old form of verse, and in his first poems adopted the didactic method. His ‘stern painting of nature’ was the power to which he owes his permanent interest. The ‘Village’ was intended as an antithesis to Goldsmith's idyllic sentimentalism. Crabbe's realism, preceding even Cowper and anticipating Wordsworth, was the first important indication of one characteristic movement in the contemporary school