The inhabitants of this district were half peasants half smugglers, and the town itself was almost exclusively occupied by seafaring men, some of whom lived by the ocean and drew up their fishing and pilot boats on the beach, and others were employed in the inland traffic which passed up and down the river. A strong tide comes up the broad channel of the Ald to the town, and receding, leaves the muddy banks exposed:

"Here samphire-banks and saltwort bound the flood, There stakes and seaweeds withering on the mud; And higher up a ridge of all things base,

Which some strong tide has rolled upon the place."

On this river is Slaughden Quay; and here, in his father's warehouse, the young Crabbe was compelled to roll the cheeses and pile the butter; duties harshly, but perhaps not unreasonably, imposed upon him while awaiting an opening for other occupation. His father was saltmaster and a leading man in the little borough, though scarcely raised in social standing above the fishermen around him. But he was a man of vigorous mind and strong passions, fond of mathematical problems and a reader of Milton, subject to fits of gloom and anger, and though himself attached to his children, ruling them with a sway that made fear predominant over love in their minds. George's inaptitude in handling the tiller or the sheet called forth many a coarse and harsh rebuke; but his father had sense to see the boy's superior mental qualifications, and strained his means to afford him the best education in his power. But not much time could be devoted to this object. He was destined for a surgeon, and at the age of thirteen first entered on his apprenticeship. He learned something of what may be learned by reading, and was specially attracted to the study of botany; but he made no progress in what men gain by practice; and when, after some years, he attempted to establish himself in Aldborough, the sense of his incompetency, and the idea that he might at any

moment be called on in some case requiring experience and manual dexterity, made him miserable. His musing habits inspired no confidence, and an active rival engrossed the little occupation there was. He himself

declared that he turned to verse as a last resource for a livelihood. This is not altogether so, as from his boyhood he seems to have loved to express his feelings and ideas in rhyme; but there is no doubt that the severity of his needs turned that into a systematic study which had otherwise perhaps only been an occasional recreation. He had a strong active mind; he found he could turn a verse as well as another; he liked the exercise, and had studied it; others had lived by it, he conceived he might do the same. His professional prospects were hopeless,

his dislike to the rude manners of those around him excessive; and after long and anxious meditation, he resolved to give up the struggle to live as a surgeon, and to commit himself to the frail resources of a literary career in London. With a stock of his best verses, and three pounds in money, he sailed in the forecastle of a sloop for the metropolis. This was in the spring of 1780.

There is no nobler instance of untiring industrious perseverance and cheerful fortitude than that displayed by Crabbe during his first year in London. Melancholy and misery at times no doubt laid heavy hands upon him; but his was not the spirit to yield to the gloomy despair of Chatterton. His endurance was based on a simple but deeply-felt piety, which no disappointments could shake or even obscure; and his spirits were supported by the steady attachment and lively spirits of his future wife. This was a Miss Elmy, a lady of some little higher social position than himself, and the niece of a Mr. Tovell, one of the old race, who, with an estate of some 8001. a year, called himself yeoman, and dined in his kitchen at the head of his domestics and labourers, while his wife shared the labours of the farm and

scrubbed the floor of the best apartment. Crabbe, who had made their acquaintance when surgeon's apprentice in the neighbourhood, had to bear many a rude jeer on his assumption of gentility and acquaintance with "the damned learning;" but he was well rewarded by securing the affections of the niece, whose sprightly letters and never-failing sympathy helped to support him through the lingering disappointments of his year of trial in London.

How he lived is a mystery. He seems to have had no resource except that of pawning his surgical instruments and his little stock of books. But his wants were few, and he entirely escaped those shiftless and dissipated habits into which men in his situation have so often been betrayed. For society he consorted with a few sober-minded young mathematicians, who met at a little coffee-house near the Exchange; and for recreation he walked to Highgate or Hornsey, and read Horace or Catullus in the country. His industrious days were devoted to the manufacture, remodelling, and writing out of poems. Bookseller after bookseller refused them; and when at last he succeeded in obtaining the publication of The Candidate, this single ray of hope was extinguished by the failure of the publisher.

It was a time when literature was shaking itself free from dependence on individual patronage, and learning to rely upon the wider and more wholesome approbation of the general public. But Crabbe, unable to obtain the opportunity of submitting himself to the world, unwillingly sought the protection of a patron. And now his troubles found an end; for after enduring his share of those slights and neglects which are the unavoidable stings of such a pursuit, and when on the eve of arrest for a debt of a few pounds, he was happy enough to be appreciated by one whose praise was an honourable distinction, and the nobleness of whose nature made his benefits at once large and easy to be borne. Edmund

Burke approved his poetry, made him the inmate of his house, and charged himself with the advance of his fortunes. Crabbe sat at his table, not like a tolerated client, but like a distinguished guest, and was introduced on equal terms to the best and most distinguished friends of his host. The politician in the hot turmoil of party life found time to stimulate and direct the poetical activities of the young author; and, stamped by his approval, The Library found a publisher in Mr. Dodsley, and gained applause from the circle of critics. Mr. Crabbe's son justly remarks, that the cultivation of his mind and the propriety of his manners must have been much above what could reasonably have been anticipated from the opportunities he had heretofore enjoyed, to give him at once so firm a hold upon the esteem and regard of such a man as Burke. It is clear that he required only to be known to gain the respect and regard of those with whom he came in contact. The kindness of Sir Joshua Reynolds called forth the warm and grateful feelings of the young adventurer. At his table he met Dr. Johnson, and the great literary dictator patted him on the head in his gloomy and solemn fashion.

To Lord Chancellor Thurlow he had before applied in vain, and had expressed his disappointment in some reproachful verses. The surly dispenser of church patronage now asked him to breakfast. "I ought to have noticed, sir," said he," the first poem you sent me, and I heartily forgive the second." He pressed a hundredpound note into his hand, and gave him promises of future assistance when he should have taken orders for a way was now opened for Crabbe to gratify what had been an old predilection, and to enter into the ministry of the Church. And deficient as he doubtless was in the education appropriate to such an office, he had at least the qualifications of an unblemished life and a devotional spirit, to which he added sound sense and considerable general cultivation of mind; though his knowledge, as is

common with men who have not been regularly educated, or afterwards mingled in the world, was limited in many directions by walls of complete ignorance; and with all his native intelligence and activity of mind, he cannot but have been deficient in that sort of culture which can only be gained by early and continuous intercourse with refined and educated society.

He was admitted to orders, and returned to Aldborough as curate to the rector of that place; but remained there only a short time, having been received as the domestic chaplain of the Duke of Rutland on the recommendation of Burke. Treated with all courtesy, he has yet left unmistakable evidence in his poems that the restraints imposed and the observance required by such a position were galling to a spirit for which freedom and independence had a more than ordinary charm. Personally the duke and duchess treated him with a consideration and regard which left an ineffaceable impression ; but they could not alter the received conditions of his position. The chaplain of that day had risen far beyond his predecessor of a hundred years back. He was no

longer a more or less privileged menial. Theoretically Crabbe was the equal of the titled and distinguished guests that thronged the ducal apartments of Belvoir; practically he was made sensible of a perpetual condescension. It was for those around him to choose the degree of intimacy to which he was to be admitted; it was for him to discharge his functions in the appointed routine, to furnish his society when it was wished for, and to withdraw from the conversation when it passed the conventional limits of clerical toleration. All this was not much to honest unsophisticated Mr. Crabbe's taste, nor had his life fitted him to move with ease in the scenes around him. He played his part as well as he could among the splendid hospitalities of the castle; but was never so happy as when he could find opportunity, in the less formal life at the duke's more retired resi