very far to the parodist's delightful apology for the change from "one
hautboy" to "one fiddle" in the description of the band. The subsequent
explanation, how the poet had purposely intertwined the various
handkerchiefs which rescued Pat Jennings's hat from the pit, lest the
real owner should be detected, and the reason for it, is a not less
exquisite piece of fooling:--"For, in the statistical view of life and
manners which I occasionally present, my clerical profession has taught
me how extremely improper it would be by any allusion, however slight,
to give any uneasiness, however trivial, to any individual, however
foolish or wicked." It might perhaps be inferred from such effusions as
are here parodied that Crabbe was lacking in a sense of humour. This
would certainly be too sweeping an inference, for in many of his
sketches of human character he gives unmistakable proof to the contrary.
But the talent in question--often so recklessly awarded or denied to us
by our fellow-creatures--is very variable in the spheres of its
operation. The sense of humour is in its essence, as we have often been
told, largely a sense of proportion, and in this sense Crabbe was
certainly deficient. The want of it accounts for much more in his
writings than for his prose notes and prefaces. It explains much of the
diffuseness and formlessness of his poetry, and his inability to grasp
the great truth how much the half may be greater than the whole.

In spite, however, of these defects, and of the inequalities of the
workmanship, _The Borough_ was from the first a success. The poem
appeared in February 1810, and went through six editions in the next six
years. It does not indeed present an alluring picture of life in the
provinces. It even reminds us of a saying of Tennyson's, that if God
made the country, and man made the city, then it was the devil who made
the country-town. To travel through the borough from end to end is to
pass through much ignoble scenery, human and other, and under a cloudy