his college, often makes a third at these meetings; and thus a
sufficient variety of topic is insured. The tales that these three tell,
with the conversations arising out of them, form the subject matter of
these _Tales of the Hall_. Crabbe devised a very pleasant means of
bringing the brother's visit to a close. When the time originally
proposed for the younger brother's stay is nearing its end, the brothers
prepare to part. At first, the younger is somewhat disconcerted that his
elder brother seemed to take his departure so little to heart. But this
display of indifference proves to be only an amiable _ruse_ on the part
of George. On occasion of a final ride together through the neighbouring
country, George asks for his brother's opinion about a purchase he has
recently made, of a pleasant house and garden adjoining his own
property. It then turns out that the generous George has bought the
place as a home for his brother, who will in future act as George's
agent or steward. On approaching and entering the house, Richard finds
his wife and children, who have been privately informed of the
arrangement, already installed, and eagerly waiting to welcome husband
and father to this new and delightful home.

Throughout the development of this story with its incidental narratives,
Crabbe has managed, as in previous poems, to make large use of his own
personal experience. The Hall proves to be a modern gentleman's
residence constructed out of a humbler farmhouse by additions and
alterations in the building and its surroundings, which was precisely
the fate which had befallen Mr. Tovell's old house which had come to the
Crabbe family, and had been parted with by them to one of the Suffolk
county families. "Moated Granges" were common in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Mr. Tovel's house had had a moat, and this too had been a feature of
George's paternal home: