(1819)

The _Tales of the Hall_ were published by John Murray in June 1819, in
two handsome octavo volumes, with every advantage of type, paper, and
margin. In a letter of Crabbe to Mrs. Leadbeater, in October 1817, he
makes reference to these Tales, already in preparation. He tells his
correspondent that "Remembrances" was the title for them proposed by his
friends. We learn from another source that a second title had been
suggested, "Forty Days--a Series of Tales told at Binning Hall." Finally
Mr. Murray recommended _Tales of the Hall_, and this was adopted.

In the same letter to Mrs. Leadbeater, Crabbe writes: "I know not how to
describe the new, and probably (most probably) the last work I shall
publish. Though a village is the scene of meeting between my two
principal characters, and gives occasion to other characters and
relations in general, yet I no more describe the manners of village
inhabitants. My people are of superior classes, though not the most
elevated; and, with a few exceptions, are of educated and cultivated
minds and habits." In making this change Crabbe was also aware that some
kind of unity must be given to those new studies of human life. And he
found at least a semblance of this unity in ties of family or friendship
uniting the tellers of them. Moreover Crabbe, who had a wide and even
intimate knowledge of English, poetry, was well acquainted with the
_Canterbury Tales_, and he bethought him that he would devise a
framework. And the plan he worked out was as follows:

"The Hall" under whose roof the stories and conversations arise is a
gentleman's house, apparently in the eastern counties, inhabited by the
elder of two brothers, George and Richard. George, an elderly bachelor,