botanical studies, which were still his hobby. As usual his post was
that of _locum tenens_, the rector, Dr. Thomas Parke, then residing at
his other living at Stamford. My friend, the Rev. J.W. Taylor, the
present rector of Stathern, who entered on his duties in 1866, tells me
of one or two of the village traditions concerning Crabbe. One of these
is to the effect that he spoke "through his nose," which I take to have
been the local explanation of a marked Suffolk accent which accompanied
the poet through life. Another, that he was peppery of temper, and that
an exceedingly youthful couple having presented themselves for holy
matrimony, Crabbe drove them with scorn from the altar, with the remark
that he had come there to marry "men and women, and not lads and
wenches!"

Crabbe used to tell his children that the four years at Stathern were,
on the whole, the happiest in his life. He and his wife were in humble
quarters, but they were their own masters, and they were quit of "the
pampered menial" for ever. "My mother and he," the son writes, "could
now ramble together at their ease amidst the rich woods of Belvoir
without any of the painful feelings which had before chequered his
enjoyment of the place: at home a garden afforded him healthful
exercise and unfailing amusement; and his situation as a curate
prevented him from being drawn into any sort of unpleasant disputes with
the villagers about him"--an ambiguous statement which probably,
however, means that the absent rector had to settle difficulties as to
tithe, and other parochial grievances. Crabbe now again brought his old
medical attainments, such as they were, to the aid of his poor
parishioners, "and had often great difficulty in confining his practice
strictly within the limits of the poor, for the farmers would willingly
have been attended _gratis_ also." His literary labours subsequent to
_The Village_ seem to have been slight, with the exception of a brief