of poetry. His clumsy style and want of sympathy with the new world isolated him as a writer, as he was a recluse in his life. But the force and fidelity of his descriptions of the scenery of his native place and of the characteristics of the rural population give abiding interest to his work. His pathos is genuine and deep, and to some judgments his later works atone for the diminution in tragic interest by their gentleness and simple humour. Scott and Wordsworth had some of his poetry by heart. Scott, like Fox, had Crabbe read to him in his last illness (Lockhart, ch. lxxxiii.) Wordsworth said that the poems would last as long as anything written in verse since their first appearance (note to ‘Village,’ bk. i. in Collected Works). Miss Austen said that she could fancy being Mrs. Crabbe. Jeffrey reviewed him admiringly, and in later years E. FitzGerald, the translator of ‘Omar Khayyám,’ wrote (1882) an admiring preface to a selection in which he says that Lord Tennyson appreciates them equally with himself. Cardinal Newman speaks of the ‘extreme delight’ with which he read ‘Tales of the Hall’ on their appearance. Thirty years later he says that a fresh reading has touched him still more, and a note, after a further lapse of twenty years, endorses this opinion. ‘A work which can please in youth and age seems to fulfil (in logical language) the accidental definition of a classic’ (The Idea of a University, ed. 1875, p. 150).
His works were: 1. ‘Inebriety,’ Ipswich, 1775. 2. ‘The Candidate, a poetical epistle to the author of the “Monthly Review,”’ 1780. 3. ‘The Library,’ 1781 and (with the author's name) 1783. 4. ‘The Village,’ 1783. 5. ‘Character of Lord Robert Manners,’ in ‘Annual Register’ for 1783. 6. ‘The Newspaper,’ 1785 (this has been translated into German, 1856, and Dutch, 1858). 7. ‘The Parish Register,’ 1807, in a volume including reprints of the ‘Library,’ the ‘Village,’ and the ‘Newspaper,’ also (for the first time) ‘Sir Eustace Grey,’ and some shorter poems. 8. ‘The Borough,’ 1810. 9. ‘Tales,’ 1812. 10. ‘Tales of the Hall,’ 1819. All the above are published, together with some posthumous ‘Tales,’ in the collected edition of his works (8 vols. 1834, and in 1835 and at later dates in one volume), with life by his son. Besides these Crabbe published two separate sermons, and contributed an account of the natural history of the vale of Belvoir to the ‘History of Leicestershire.’
George Crabbe, the poet's son, born 16 Nov. 1785, received his whole education from his father, except a few months under Mr. King at Ipswich, entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1803, graduated B.A. 1807, became curate of Allington in 1811, married Caroline Matilda, daughter of Thomas Timbrell of Trowbridge, in 1817, and became curate of Pucklechurch. In 1834 he was presented by Lord Lyndhurst to the vicarages of Bredfield and Petistree in Suffolk, and built a parsonage at Bredfield, where he lived till his death, 16 Sept. 1857. Besides the life of his father (1834) he published a book upon natural theology. He inherited his father's humour, was a sturdy, old-fashioned gentleman, enjoying long walks amidst fine scenery or to objects of antiquarian interest, and professing a hearty contempt for verse, except, apparently, his father's (Gent. Mag. 1857, ii. 562, and Life of G. Crabbe).
[Crabbe's Life by his son George, an excellent piece of biography, is the main authority for his life. See also Brief Notices of the Rev. G. Crabbe … by James Hews Bransby, Carnarvon, 1832; Cuttings from Crabbe, with a Memoir (by Mr. Taylor, a parishioner; see Life of Crabbe, 1861, p. 73); Autobiographical Sketch in New Monthly Magazine, 1816, republished in the Annual Biog. and Obituary for 1833. The Leadbeater Papers (1862), ii. 337–403, gives the full correspondence with Mary Leadbeater, daughter of Burke's friend, Shackleton.]
CRABTREE or KRABTREE, HENRY (fl. 1685), astrologer, would scarcely deserve mention here but for the fact that he has sometimes been confounded with William Crabtree the astronomer. He was born either at Norland or at Sowerby, in the parish of Halifax, and is said to have been a schoolfellow of Archbishop Tillotson. He became curate of Todmorden in Lancashire, and in 1685 published ‘Merlinus Rusticus, or a Country Almanack’ (London, printed for the company of Stationers). From the long description of the contents given in the title-page (which is copied in the anonymous ‘History of Halifax’) it appears that the object of the book was mainly astrological. No copy of it is found in the library of the British Museum.
[Hist. of the Town and Parish of Halifax (Halifax, 1789), p. 320; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. v. 192.]
CRABTREE, WILLIAM (1610–1644?), astronomer, son of John Crabtree, a ‘husbandman’ of fair estate, was born at Broughton, near Manchester, in 1610, and baptised at the collegiate church of Manchester on 29 June that year. He was educated, it is presumed, at the Manchester grammar school, but did not go to Cambridge, as is sometimes stated. In due time he engaged in the business of a clothier or chapman (equivalent to a merchant of to-day), and seems to have been in comfortable circumstances. In his twenty--
